Nearly a century after it was founded in 1912 as a modernist Islamic movement, Muhammadiyah on Monday renewed its pledge to bring enlightenment to society by practicing the teachings of Islam that are “liberating and empowering”.
“This will be the central theme for Muhammadiyah’s programs for the next five years,” the organization’s deputy chairman Haedar Nashir said on Monday evening.
He was reading out the “Muhammadiyah’s statement of thoughts for the second century” at the organization’s congress, which runs from July 3-8.
Meanwhile, 2,300 out of the 2,800 participants at the Muhammadiyah congress cast their votes on Monday to elect 13 members to its central board of executives (PP).
The voting ran from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m. Vote counting began at 7:30 p.m., and was expected to be completed after midnight.
Every voter was required to select 13 names from a list of 39 candidates nominated during a separate meeting.
As of 10 p.m., current chairman Din Syamsuddin was leading with 388 votes, followed by Muhammad Muqoddas with 329, Haedar Nashir with 288 and Dahlan Rais with 287.
Haedar said Islam should be seen as an agent of liberation and empowerment. Faith frees people from ignorance, poverty, immorality and laziness, he said.
By empowering, he said, he meant Muhammadiyah would not just discuss how to alleviate poverty, but actually empower the poor and make them financially independent.
“These have to be reflected in the programs and actions of Muhammadiyah, which is the movement of enlightenment.”
Earlier on Monday, young members of Muhammadiyah called for regeneration in the Muslim organization, which is older than the country.
Hajriyanto Y. Thohari, a Muhammadiyah member, said the present election mechanism made it difficult for younger activists to enter the executive body.
“I think it’s time for the congress to review the mechanism and come up with a new one that will allow the birth of a young leadership in the organization,” said Hajriyanto, who is also deputy speaker of the People’s Consultative Assembly, on the sidelines of the Muhammadiyah congress on Monday.
Hajriyanto also suggested the members of the council only be allowed to serve for two or three 5-year periods, rather than the current four to five, to give younger members a chance to enter the central executive body.
“It’s just unbelievable that a member can serve on the PP for up to four to five periods, meaning 20 to 25 years,” said Hajriyanto, also former chairman of Muhammadiyah’s youth group, Pemuda Muhammadiyah.
Chairman of Pemuda Muhammadiyah, M Izul Muslimin, concurred. “There are many on the PP who have served for 15 years. This is not good for the organization,” Izul said.
“Yes, Muhammadiyah is old now - 100 years old - but it is not a group of old people. Muhammadiyah is good already, but it would be much better if it gave more opportunity to young members to act,” he added.
Chairman Din said he supported the idea of reducing the number of terms a council member could sit for, saying it would allow more young people to serve.
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