Amir Sjarifuddin

Amir Sjarifuddin Harahap (EVO: Amir Sjarifoeddin Harahap; 27 April 1907 – 19 December 1948) was an Indonesian politician and journalist who served as the second prime minister of Indonesia from 1947 until 1948. A major leader of the left wing during the Indonesian National Revolution, he previously served as Minister of Information from 1945 until 1946 and Minister of Defense from 1945 until 1948. Amir was born into the Sumatran aristocracy and was educated at Leiden University. At Leiden, he became a member of the board of the Gymnasium student association in Haarlem and was involved in the Batak student organization Jong Batak. He returned to Indonesia due to family troubles but continued his education at the Rechts Hogeschool in Batavia.

After graduating, he became active in literary and journalist circles, joining the editorial board of the newspaper Panorama. He also became involved with left-wing politics and led a group of younger Marxists in the establishment of the Indonesian People's Movement (Gerindo). In 1933, due to his political activities, Amir was imprisoned, and almost exiled to the Boven-Digoel concentration camp, had it not for the efforts of his cousin and teacher. During the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies, Amir was one of a few prominent Indonesian politicians who actively fought against the Japanese, together with fellow future prime minister Sutan Sjahrir. Following the Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, he was appointed Minister of Information in President Sukarno's Presidential Cabinet. Later, he was appointed the Minister of Defense following the absence of Supriyadi.

After the fall of Sjahrir's cabinet, Amir was chosen to head the new cabinet, with the backing of a broad coalition. He faced a backlash over the cabinet's decision to ratify the Renville Agreement, and he resigned from the prime ministership, being succeeded by Vice President Mohammad Hatta as prime minister. After his ousting, he became involved in the People's Democratic Front (FDR). Following the beginning of the Madiun Affair, Amir and other FDR leaders rushed to assume control of the newly formed "National Front" government. In the following weeks, pro-government forces, led by the Siliwangi Division, began pushing the leftist forces back. During the fighting, Amir was captured, and imprisoned in Yogyakarta. After the withdrawal of Republican forces after Operation Kraai, he was executed, along with fifty other leftist prisoners.

Amir Sjarifuddin Harahap was born in Medan, Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), on 27 April 1907. He was born into the Sumatran aristocracy. His grandfather, Mangaraja Monang, was a Batak nobleman – who had been baptized into Christianity and named Ephraim – with the title of Sutan Gunung Tua. Amir's father, Djamin, was also a nobleman, with the title of Sultan Soripada Harahap, however he later left the religion and became a Muslim, after marrying Amir's mother, Basunu Siregar, a devout Muslim woman who came from a well-respected family from the Malay-Islamic community. Amir was the eldest child of seven children and was given the title of Sutan Gunung Sualoon. He came from a family of prosecutors, with both his grandfather and father practicing the profession. Amir began his education in 1914 when he attended the Europeesche Lagere School (ELS) in Medan. However, in 1916, he was forced to attend a different ELS in Sibolga, as his father was transferred there. In August 1921, he and his older cousin, Todung Sutan Gunung Mulia, left for the Netherlands. There, he resided with the Smink family in Haarlem, 29 kilometers north of Leiden. He continued his education at the Gymnasium in Haarlem, though Mulia returned to Indonesia, as he had completed his schooling already. After only a year at the Haarlem Gymnasium, he moved to the State Gymnasium of Leiden.

In Leiden, Amir stayed at the house of Mrs. Antonie Aris van de Losdrecht–Sizzo, the widow of the evangelist and missionary Antonie Aris van de Loosdrecht, who was killed in Tana Toraja in 1913. He became involved in the Batak student organization Jong Batak and was becoming increasingly interested in Christianity and the Bible. As a student, he would become a member of the Perhimpoenan Indonesia ("Indonesian Association"), under the leadership of future-Indonesian vice president Mohammad Hatta. During his time in Leiden, he began to admire and be influenced by the Count of Mirabeau—Honoré Gabriel Riqueti— as well as Maximillien Robespierre, both of whom would influence Amir in his later career. He returned to Indonesia following family troubles, as his father had lost his job as Chief Prosecutor because he punched a prisoner. He would continue his education at the Rechts Hogeschool, and later converted from Islam to Christianity in 1931, being baptized in the Huria Church, in Batavia. He would go on to give sermons at the church.

Throughout the 1930s, Amir was active in literary and journalistic circles, joining the editorial board of the newspaper Panorama, together with Liem Koen Hian, Sanusi Pane, and Mohammad Yamin. In 1933, Amir was imprisoned by the Dutch for his Aksi Massa ("Mass Action") essay, an essay published in the Banteng Partindo magazine that encouraged the public to drive out the colonial invaders. Though in actuality, the essay was written by Mohammad Yamin, with Amir only stated as the author in the published version. Amir was imprisoned for two years, being released on 5 June 1935. In mid-1936, together with his colleagues Liem, Pane, and Yamin, Amir started another newspaper, Kebangoenan, which – as with Panorama – was published by Phoa Liong Gie's Siang Po Printing Press. In 1937, towards the end of the Dutch rule, Amir led a group of younger Marxists in the establishment of the Indonesian People's Movement (Gerindo). Under Amir's leadership, the party was considered a radical leftist anti-fascist political party, influenced by the ideology of Communism. The Soviet Union's Dimitrov doctrine had called for a common front against fascism which helped swell the number of Indonesians taking a cooperative approach with regards to the Dutch colonial administration in an attempt to secure Indonesian independence.

Gerindo was one of the more significant cooperative parties in the years leading to World War II whose objectives included a fully Indonesian legislature; It had modest goals in comparison to the Dutch-suppressed radical nationalists led by the likes of Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta, whom Sjarifuddin had met before the War. By 1940, Dutch intelligence suspected him of being involved with the Communist underground. Having watched the increased strength and influence of Imperial Japan, he was one of several Indonesian leaders who warned against the danger of fascism before the war. Before the German invasion of the Netherlands, Amir himself led and promoted boycotts against trade with Japan. When the colony was invaded by Japan, his prominent role in these campaigns prompted the head of Dutch intelligence to provide Amir with 25,000 guilders to organize an underground resistance movement. Upon Japan's occupation of the East Indies, the Japanese enforced total suppression of any opposition to their rule. Most Indonesian leaders obliged either by becoming 'neutral observers' or by actively cooperating. Amir was one of a few prominent Indonesian politicians who actively fought against the Japanese, together with fellow future prime minister Sutan Sjahrir. The Japanese arrested Sjarifuddin in 1943, and he escaped execution only due to intervention from Sukarno, whose popularity in Indonesia – and hence the importance to the war effort – was recognized by the Japanese.

By 1945, Amir had become known and respected as a politician. Although he had been in contact with the 'illegal' Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI), he had nothing but disdain for the 'unsophisticated' and unknown Marxists who re-established the party in 1935. His closest colleagues were from the 'illegal PKI' underground and the pre-war Indonesian People's Movement (Gerindo). Together, they formed the Socialist Party of Indonesia (Parsi) on 1 November 1945. At a two-party conference on 16 – 17 December, it was announced that Amir's Parsi would merge with Sjahrir's political grouping, the Socialist People's Party (Paras), forming the Socialist Party (PS). With Sjahrir serving as chairman, and Amir serving as vice chairman. The Socialist Party quickly became the strongest pro-government party, especially in Yogyakarta and East Java. The party accepted the argument of Amir and its other leaders that the time was not ripe to implement socialism, rather that international support necessary for independence be sought, and that unruly constituents had to be opposed. The party's westernized leaders showed more faith in Netherlands left-wing forces than in the revolutionary fervor of the Indonesian people, which became a source of discontent among the party's opponents.