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Jokowi calls on Muhammadiyah to act as driver of progress
Highest endorsement: President Joko âJokowiâ Widodo arrives at Karebosi Square in Makassar, South Sulawesi, to attend the opening of the 47th Muhammadiyah national congress on Monday
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Highest endorsement: President Joko âJokowiâ Widodo arrives at Karebosi Square in Makassar, South Sulawesi, to attend the opening of the 47th Muhammadiyah national congress on Monday. At the top of the agenda of the five-day congress is the election of a new leader.(Antara/Yusran Uccang) (Antara/Yusran Uccang)
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span class="inline inline-center">Highest endorsement: President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo arrives at Karebosi Square in Makassar, South Sulawesi, to attend the opening of the 47th Muhammadiyah national congress on Monday. At the top of the agenda of the five-day congress is the election of a new leader.(Antara/Yusran Uccang)
President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo on Monday opened the 47th muktamar (national congress) of Muhammadiyah, the country's second-largest Islamic organization, in Makassar, South Sulawesi, with the event themed 'Enlightenment for a Progressive Indonesia'.
In his opening remarks, Jokowi called on the 104-year-old organization, which claims around 35 million members, to continue playing a role as a driver of progress, not only in religious reform, but also in the fields of education, health and law enforcement.
'Muhammadiyah has made great contributions to the country since its establishment in 1912 by cleric KH Ahmad Dahlan. It owns enterprises located all across the country. Imagine how many thousands or millions of babies have been delivered in Muhammadiyah's hospitals; how many millions of people who have graduated from its schools and universities as of today,' Jokowi told thousands of muktamar attendees at Karebosi park in Makassar.
First Lady Iriana, People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) speaker Zulkifli Hasan and several Cabinet ministers including Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin also attended the opening ceremony.
The organization is strong on education and health. In the education sector, Muhammadiyah controls as many as 4,623 kindergartens, 2,604 elementary schools, 1,772 high junior schools, 1,143 high schools
and 67 Islamic boarding schools as well as around 172 universities and 71 special-needs schools in the archipelago.
Meanwhile, in the health and religious sectors, Muhammadiyah owns around 457 hospitals, 318 orphanages, 54 senior citizens' houses and 82 rehabilitation houses for disabled people as well as 6,118 mosques and 5,080 mushollas (small mosques) in Indonesia.
'Muhammadiyah has been playing a role as a driver of change to educate people and improve people's welfare through its enterprises. Muhammadiyah has shown that it uses Islam as the answer to the country's problems,' Jokowi added.
Jokowi hoped that Muhammadiyah would produce more educational resources that would help the government in its campaigns to step up efforts to eradicate rampant corruption and the danger of drugs in the country.
Outgoing Muhammadiyah chairman Din Syamsuddin answered Jokowi's calls by saying that the Islamic organization as an independent organization would always support any programs the government ran to improve people's prosperity.
'But, be mindful that we can also be strong critics if the government fails to deliver the basic rights of people in the country,' said Din, who is also the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) chairman.
Muhammadiyah's secretary Abdul Mu'ti, who is one of the 39 candidates to be selected as the successor of Din during the muktamar, said that it was in the nature of Muhammadiyah to make a contribution to the country even if the government did not ask it to do so.
The scholar said that in addition to Muhammadiyah's macro-scale enterprises, the organization also operated around 500 cooperatives that have so far managed to attract more than 500,000 customers with an annual turnover of more than Rp 4 trillion (US$294 million).
'The amount does not include the value of the cooperatives' assets. This is a big achievement that Muhammadiyah has made for the country,' Mu'ti said.
The Makassar congress is slated to pick a new Muhammadiyah chairperson on Wednesday to replace Din, who has been leading the organization since 2005.
On Monday, Muhammadiyah's women's organization Aisyiyah also kicked off its own muktamar in Makassar to select a new chairwoman to replace retiring leader Siti Noordjannah Djohantini. The opening of the muktamar marked the 100th birthday of the women's organization.
'Aisyiyah has been playing a role in improving the lives of women in education, health and family sectors. We advocate equal educational rights for women,' Siti said, adding that the organization would fight any form of discrimination faced by women in the country.
