As decided by the Central Executive of Muhammadiyah that organizationally, Muhammadiyah will remain neutral concerning on the upcoming grand event of this Nation, especially in supporting a certain party. In this case, Muhammadiyah asked for people, both individual and political party and success team of Presidential Candidates to respect Muhammadiyah’s decision, especially on the increasingly heated political dynamics in Indonesia for the upcoming Presidential Election in July 9.
Related to banner issue, which sounded provocative, posted in Facebook by Wimar Witoelar, where he posted Muhammadiyah logo with a caption “Gallery of Rogues… Kebangkitan Bad Guys” (uploaded 6/15/2014). Iwan Setiawan thought that Wimar Witoelar’s action as a public figure was very unfortunate. Wimar’s action, besides obviously hurting Muhammadiyah members, it would also be a boomerang for Presidential Candidate he supported. There were, of course, Muhammadiyah members who supported the candidate he posted in his Facebook account.
Personally, I hoped Wimar would be a gentleman and deleted the banner, and personally asked for an apology to Central Executive of Muhammadiyah. Moreover, as a journalist, Wimar was supposed to understand the ethical codes of conveying opinion in social media, unless Wimar had negative personal agenda to make a dispute between Muhammadiyah members.
Iwan Setiawan responded on the thousands of suggestion and demands by Muhammadiyah members, especially those who joined social media, to report Wimar Witoelar for disobeying Law on Electronic Information and Transaction. He said that it would be up to Central Executive of Muhammadiyah as the highest council in the organization.
Besides hoping that Wimar would quickly delete the banner and publicly apologize through social media, Iwan also suggested to Muhammadiyah members to think it through and was not provoked by this case, by always remembering the spirit of silaturahmi and tabayyun, so that we are kept out from lies and slander, especially on this sensitive situation.