History of Muhammadiyah Politics as a Neutral Organization

This study aimed to discover the history of Muhammadiyah politics, including Muhammadiyah's political ideology, the pattern of Muhammadiyah relations with political parties, Muhammadiyah views on democracy, and Muhammadiyah's participation in the national political constellation since the founding of the MIAI. The study used historical method with the stages of (1) choosing a topic, (2) gathering sources, (3) verifying, (4) interpreting, and (5) writing. Further, data collection techniques in this study used library techniques. This study showed that Muhammadiyah uses political strategies, such as the Khitah Ujung Pandang 1971 and Khitah Denpasar 2002, as political guidelines. In its history, Muhammadiyah has three relationship patterns with political parties: direct relationship patterns, indirect relationship patterns, and neutral relationship patterns. Furthermore, Muhammadiyah is not anti-politics, Muhammadiyah even supports democracy based on ethics. Muhammadiyah's involvement in politics has started since it participated in MIAI, PII, Masyumi, and Parmusi.


INTRODUCTION
To modernize or purify Islamic teachings, KH.Ahmad Dahlan formed Muhammadiyah in 1912, one of Indonesia's most wellknown Islamic organizations (Setiawan, 2023;Suryana, 2009).Muhammadiyah presents itself in the political sphere as an impartial organization that is unaffiliated with any political force and refrains from engaging in overtly political activities.
However, at certain moments, it seems that Muhammadiyah cannot be separated from political issues, either directly from the Muhammadiyah organization or through its cadres (Boty et al., 2023;Haedar Nashir, 2017).It shows that Muhammadiyah sees politics as something that is acceptable and should not be avoided.

According to
Muhammadiyah, politics can be used as a platform for the proclamation of amar ma'ruf nahi munkar.It indicates that participating in politics can be a tool in the struggle for da'wah.
Additionally, political issues frequently result in energy-draining conflicts between politicians, parties not directly involved, societies, and nonpolitical organizations (Jurdi, 2010).

METHOD
The historical method was used in this study to reveal events that occurred in the past systematically.Historical methods guided research into historical events and their problems (Cipta, 2020) (Suryana, 2009).However, Muhammadiyah's political involvement ultimately changed to an organization unaffiliated with any political party.

Systematic basic concepts of
Muhammadiyah thought related to politics were difficult to find (Haedar Nashir, 2000).This thought was fragmented in and Partai Muslim Indonesia (Parmusi) (Shobron, 2003).Moreover, Muhammadiyah became its core strength in these parties' political activities.

Indirect Relationship Pattern
This relationship pattern does not involve Muhammadiyah as an organization in politics.

However, it involves
Muhammadiyah figures who receive great support from Muhammadiyah members to establish political parties, struggle in political constellations, or support particular political parties (Fatwa, 2000).(Maarif, 2009).

Muhammadiyah and Democracy
Muhammadiyah views democracy as a good system if it is based on ethics and does not violate Islamic teachings.This democratic process aims to get reliable leaders at the regional and central levels to improve the welfare of the people economically (Jurdi, 2011).
In a democratic system, everyone has the same opportunity to participate and be involved in making fair decisions (Maarif, 2009).In principle, Muhammadiyah is not affiliated and is involved in practical political activities.
However, Muhammadiyah cadres can utilize this democratic system to improve the quality of Indonesian democracy and benefit the societies.
The role of selected Muhammadiyah cadres in this political constellation contributes to the regions currently being led and post-led.We can see this from the figure of Ali Mukhni, former Regent of Padang Pariaman.In the 4 years of his leadership, there was a significant improvement in the society's economy (Putri et al., 2021).
The role of Muhammadiyah cadres manifests amar ma'ruf nahi munkar movement by presenting Islamic values in action (Putri et al., 2021).These values are attached as an identity for Muhammadiyah cadres, which increases public trust and avoids fraud.and an Indonesian freedom fighter (Kiptiyah, 2018;Suciati et al., 2023).Muhammadiyah supports an ethical, democratic system and invites all Indonesian people to build a national and regional leadership succession system that aims to build a democratic system that will prosper the people economically.

This
Khitah showed Muhammadiyah's action in determining its political principles.Muhammadiyah plays its political role by controlling state policies to align with the agreed constitution.As an organization, Muhammadiyah does not maintain relations with any political forces.However, Muhammadiyah does not prohibit its members from exercising their political rights according to their choices.Then, Muhammadiyah emphasized to its members who are active in politics to be earnest in carrying out their responsibilities.These two Khitah are essential for Muhammadiyah's political policy to uphold neutrality in practical politics.These Khitah are also guidelines for Muhammadiyah members to respond to political issues.This pattern of direct relations indicates active engagement between the Muhammadiyah organization and political parties.Muhammadiyah was directly involved in the founding of parties, political activities, and struggles in practical politics.We can see this in the long political history of Muhammadiyah, where it was involved in the establishment and political activities of several political parties, such as involvement in political activities in Partai Islam Indonesia (PII), Majlis Syura Muslimin Indonesia (Masyumi),

HoweverFrom
the end, Mas Mansyur was permitted to serve as PII's chairman through the Tanwir Muhammadiyah in 1939.However, Mas Mansyur prioritized the organization's integrity by resigning from the central leadership of PII in 1940.

Table 1 .
The proportion of Muhammadiyah