Oret-oretan kecil saya di The Jakarta Post 20 Juli 2005. Semoga bermanfaat.
Hilman
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaileditorial.asp?fileid=20050720.E03&irec=2
Muhammadiyah intellectuals need meaningful dialog
Hilman Latief, Jakarta
The emergence of the Muhammadiyah Young Intellectual Network (JIMM) generated a
heated debate among Muhammadiyah members before, during and after the recent
Muhammadiyah congress in Malang. A number of congress participants accused JIMM
of deviating from the spirit of Islam and of being involved in liberal
movements that allegedly originate from "non-Islamic views".
This is not too surprising, because since two years ago the tension between the
"left camp" (liberal) and the "right camp" (conservative) of has become more
and more serious. This tension also has been generated by the fact that dialog
as a suitable medium to reconcile such religious differences has often been
neglected.
On the one hand, JIMM and other progressive Muhammadiyah members have attempted
to find "a new model" of Muhammadiyah by adopting and appreciating new courses
concerning civil society, civil pluralism, liberal hermeneutics and conflict
resolution. On the other hand, the majority of Muhammadiyah members have
striven to keep Muhammadiyah in the "old pattern".
The questions are: how far have Muhammadiyah and JIMM tried to understand each
other? How many forums have so far been offered by Muhammadiyah to let JIMM
speak up? Metaphorically and factually, JIMM is Muhammadiyah's own child.
It comprises young Muhammadiyah activists, for the most part university
students, who are aware of the need for a new style of Muhammadiyah movement in
terms of Indonesia's pluralistic society.
In October 2003, along with other activists, I was invited by JIMM to present a
paper and share my opinions concerning hermeneutics, one of the topics
discussed at the first JIMM forum in Bogor.
During our gathering, we talked about multiculturalism, civil society, social
analysis, new social movements, social research, globalization and
anti-globalization, hegemony and anti-hegemony, poverty, feminism, empowerment,
etc.
These topics are very common among NGOs. By dealing with such topics in the
forum, it seems the young members of Muhammadiyah, who call themselves
intellectuals, was trying to focus their involvement in Muhammadiyah.
However, the efforts and expectations of these young people to be involved in
Muhammadiyah have been perceived in the opposite way by their "parents".
Interestingly, the Muhammadiyah members who do not agree with the existence of
JIMM fail "to catch the mustard". They are simply concerned with the "intrinsic
religious ideas" raised by JIMM such as hermeneutics or religious pluralism,
but do not grasp the main idea JIMM is dealing with: a new social movement.
If it is true that Muhammadiyah senior members care about their organization
and young generation -- who will become their successors -- they must guide
them, not by accusing the youths of deviating from Islam or from Muhammadiyah's
mission, but by offering forums for dialog with the intention of reconciling
the idealism of JIMM and Muhammadiyah.
It is disappointing to see how some prominent Muhammadiyah members have accused
JIMM activists of being "secular-liberal", while at the same time the young
activists have called the older members "fundamentalist-Taliban".
It is necessary for JIMM and Muhammadiyah to realize how unfavorable this
situation is. JIMM members have the kind of potential Muhammadiyah must
preserve. Muhammadiyah activists have sincerely devoted themselves to the
organization.
Indeed, the intrinsic religious issues embraced by JIMM, to some degree,
intersect with the ideas held by the Liberal Islam Network (JIL) from Nahdlatul
Ulama (NU). Many Muhammadiyah members and activists from other Muslim
organizations who are supposedly anti-liberal Islam seem to put JIL and JIMM in
the same mold. They concentrate more on the term "liberal" rather then the core
ideas of JIMM. Therefore, it is not surprising that many Muhammadiyah
activists, along with other conservative Muslims, are accusing JIMM of being
secular-liberal and Western agents.
As a new entity within Muhammadiyah, JIMM is still in the process of maturing.
Muhammadiyah members cannot expect instant results from JIMM's intellectual
exercises.
But we also have to be aware that many organizations that have the same
ideology as Muhammadiyah, which is the ideology of Puritanism, have come
rapidly into existence. That means there is a lot of empty space in society
left by Muhammadiyah that is going to be filled by such organizations.
Moreover, we must also realize that Muhammadiyah cannot solve and will not be
able to handle all problems faced by the nation without involving other
entities. Therefore, the ideology of openness and progressiveness, as
introduced by Ahmad Dahlan and other founding fathers of Muhammadiyah, should
be re-articulated.
Nevertheless, some important messages also must be addressed to JIMM members.
Without reducing their idealism, the current negative response from
Muhammadiyah must be seen as a critique indicating that JIMM needs to discover
a new strategy in articulating its idealism.
The intellectual discourse within JIMM must be ready to be transformed to the
level of action. The progressiveness of JIMM activists, if they really want to
be called progressive, must also be proved with concrete actions.
Above all, formal or informal support from Muhammadiyah is still needed by
these young people. Therefore, in order to fill the gap between JIMM and
Muhammadiyah, a sincere and frank dialog must immediately be organized.
The writer is a lecturer at the School of Islamic Studies at Muhammadiyah
University in Yogyakarta. He is an alumnus of the Pesantren Muhammadiyah, Darul
Arqam, Garut. Currently, he is pursuing an advanced degree at Western Michigan
University. He can be reached at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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