SEEING that Ahmad Syafii Maarif needed a car, his staff offered him two brands of luxury cars to choose from. He rejected both of them, saying the cars were not in line with his position as the head of Muhammadiyah, a middle-class, grassroots mass organization.

As a result, Syafii was given a car with a price tag far below the initially offered luxury automobiles. On his own, the Sawahlunto, West Sumatra-born Syafii could easily purchase those lux