If former chairman Amien Rais wishes to return to the Muhammadiyah Muslim organization, he is expected to demonstrate that he is free from interests other than those that benefit the organization, according to a regional chairman.
Muhammadiyah’s Yogyakarta branch chairman Agung Danarto voiced these expecations in response to questions on Amien’s recent statement he would resign from the National Mandate Party (PAN) and return to Muhammadiyah.
“We have been informed that Pak Amien has been actively visiting Muhammadiyah branches in a number of regions.
“Hopefully this is purely for the sake of the future development of the organization,” he told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
As one of the country’s largest Muslim organizations entering its second millennium of existence, Agung said Muhammadiyah was in need of a pengayom figure, a protective leader who would be accepted by everyone.
In that case, Agung said, such a figure would not be a one-man show but would be able to implement decisions that involved the input of all the other figures in the organization’s collective collegial leadership system.
“It’s more or less like the figure of Pak A.R. Fachruddin,” Agung said, referring to another former Muhammadiyah chairman.
This July, Muhammadiyah is set to hold its centennial congress in Yogyakarta, its agenda, among others, is to elect a new chairman.
The congress is considered important as it is expected to make important decisions about the future of the organization.
“We consider the first millennium a success. Unless we are very well-prepared for the second millennium, I’m afraid the story will just come to an end this century,” said Agung, who is also a lecturer at the State Islamic University (UIN) Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta.
Agung expressed concerns about the organization’s management of its human resources potential, which he found lacked dynamism.
Muhammadiyah, he said, had always backed diversity and unless the diversity was well managed, it would not survive.
“The success of Muhammadiyah will be measured by how well it accommodates diversity within the organization.”
The Rp 18 million-worth centennial congress, scheduled on July 3-8, is expected to see more than 500,000 Muhammadiyah supporters from across the country visit Yogyakarta.
The figure excludes 6,000 delegates who are participating in the congresses of Muhammadiyah, its women’s wing Aisyiyah and youth wing IPM (the association of Muhammadiyah Students) held simultaneously at the same city.
