TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Din warns about politics influencing Muhammadiyah
Muhammadiyah's outgoing chairman, Din Syamsuddin, has warned about the influence of political parties in the second largest Islamic organization in Indonesia, saying that such issues would harm the organizations consistency in implementing its khittah (initial commitment to staying away from politics)
Change Size
M
uhammadiyah's outgoing chairman, Din Syamsuddin, has warned about the influence of political parties in the second largest Islamic organization in Indonesia, saying that such issues would harm the organizations consistency in implementing its khittah (initial commitment to staying away from politics).
'There are strong signals that there are efforts to draw Muhammadiyah into supporting a political party. This will harm the implementation of a khittah that we agreed upon in Makassar in 1971,' he said as quoted by Antara on the sidelines of the 47th Muhammadiyah national congress (muktamar) at the Makassar Muhammadiyah University (Unismuh)on Wednesday.
To avoid such a situation from happening, Din gave the new leaders of Muhammadiyah three recommendations on political policies that they should propose to the congress' participants for deliberation in plenary meetings.
He said the khittah, which was one of the decisions resulting from the 38th national congress in Makassar 44 years ago, asserted that Muhammadiyah would be neutral and neither involved in nor affiliated with any political party.
'This khittah was made in Makassar and we revived it again here, in Makassar. I have conveyed my recommendation in my last remarks during the first plenary meeting of the national congress at the Unismuh campus,' he said.
In one of his recommendations, Din highlighted that Muhammadiyah must stick to its cultural identity, namely building moral politics and avoiding active involvement in any practical political activities, as agreed in the khittah 1971.
Furthermore, he said Muhammadiyah must keep performing its role as a cultural movement for enlightening Islamic activities.
'Lastly, Muhammadiyah must stay focused on movements that respond to political policies rationally,' said Din. To that end, he said, any agreement Muhammadiyah made with any given political party had to be ad hoc in nature.
'Maintaining good relations with political parties is normal. But if there is an attempt to require a candidate to support Muhammadiyah in his or her nomination in the upcoming elections, I think it has violated the khittah,' said Din. (ebf)(++++)
