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New chairman wants to protect minorities
New leader: Muhammadiyahâs newly elected chairman, Haedar Nashir, (center) poses with other executives of the organization in Makassar on Thursday
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New leader: Muhammadiyahâs newly elected chairman, Haedar Nashir, (center) poses with other executives of the organization in Makassar on Thursday. Haedar will hold the position of chairman until 2020.(Antara/Yusran Uccang) (center) poses with other executives of the organization in Makassar on Thursday. Haedar will hold the position of chairman until 2020.(Antara/Yusran Uccang)
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span class="inline inline-center">New leader: Muhammadiyah's newly elected chairman, Haedar Nashir, (center) poses with other executives of the organization in Makassar on Thursday. Haedar will hold the position of chairman until 2020.(Antara/Yusran Uccang)
A calm and laid-back plenary session at the Muhammadiyah muktamar (national congress) in Makassar, South Sulawesi, endorsed on Thursday sociology professor Haedar Nashir as chairman of the organization for the 2015-2020 term, replacing outgoing leader Din Syamsuddin.
The election of the 57-year-old scholar raised hope that the organization would maintain its stance on protecting beleaguered minority groups, including Shiite and Ahmadiyah, given his track records as a figurehead of the organization's moderate faction.
Haedar, whose wife Siti Noordjannah Djohantini was also elected as the chairperson of Muhammadiyah's women's auxiliary, Aisyiyah, assumed the top position after all 13 newly elected members of the Muhammadiyah board of leadership unanimously agreed to name him the next chairman.
Shortly after his election, Haedar delivered a speech in which he vowed that under his leadership Muhammadiyah would continue giving protection to all minority groups in Indonesia regardless of their faiths and cultural backgrounds as part of the organization's efforts to bring harmonious relations to this multicultural country.
'Muhammadiyah has the solution that the majority should protect the minority and at the same time the minority should build a synergy with the majority. We will try to prevent conflicts or mediate any developing conflict. We must protect the minority,' Haedar said in his speech at the venue of the national congress at Makassar Muhammadiyah University, in Makassar on Thursday night.
In his speech Haedar also congratulated Nadhlatul Ulama (NU) for electing its new chairman during its muktamar in Jombang, East Java, on Wednesday.
Haedar vowed to further improve cooperation with NU through a number of strategic partnership programs, including campaigns to protect minority groups in Indonesia.
Haedar also pledged that Muhammadiyah would continue to stay neutral in the country's politics.
'Muhammadiyah will stick to its stance of not having an alignment with political parties in the country and will not establish any political party in the future. As an independent organization Muhammadiyah will maintain communications with all political parties,' Haedar said.
Meanwhile, Muhammadiyah's new secretary-general, Abdul Mu'ti, said that Haedar was elected in a unanimous decision.
'It only took the board of leadership 10 minutes to make its decision on the chairmanship and secretary-generalship.'
Haedar topped the list of preferences of the 13 new Muhammadiyah board of leadership members polled on Wednesday after 1,974 out of 2,389 congress participants voted for him to sit on the board. Mu'ti came in fourth place with 1,802 votes.
A political analyst from the State Islamic University (UIN), Syarif Hidayatullah Fuad Fanani, said that Haedar and Mu'ti, whom he considered moderates, were the perfect pair to lead Muhammadiyah.
'Pak Haedar is good at internal bureaucratic reform to deal with internal affairs in Muhammadiyah, while Pak Mu'ti is a good at international relations,' Fuad told The Jakarta Post.
Meanwhile, Muhammadiyah observer Kim Hyung-jun from Seoul National University said that he believed Haedar and Mu'ti would keep their promise to protect minority groups in Indonesia. 'They are both moderate figures,' Kim said.
In a separate election, Haedar's wife Siti was reelected as Aishiyah chairperson after being elected earlier to the women's organization's board of leadership during its congress in Jakarta.
Header and his wife repeated the feat achieved by Muhammadiyah's founder, Islamic cleric Ahmad Dahlan, in 1912 when he was elected to lead Muhammadiyah, while his wife assumed the top post of Aisyiyah.
