Hatta remembered as nation amends Constitution<\/p>\n
Berni K. Moestafa and Febiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post,
\nJakarta<\/p>\n
\"Every group is competing with each other in a scramble for
\nprofit. One's own group comes first, the community as a whole is
\nforgotten.\"<\/p>\n
Words that aptly describe today's political scene, yet were
\nspoken 42 years ago by disgruntled vice president Mohammad Hatta
\njust days before he resigned on Dec. 1, 1956.<\/p>\n
Hatta was born 100 years ago today, but his message is still
\napt at a time the nation he helped found tries to kickstart a
\nfaltering democracy with an amended 1945 Constitution, which he
\nhelped to draft.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, lawmakers completed the amendment of the 1945
\nConstitution, achieving what their predecessors some 50 years ago
\ntried, but failed.<\/p>\n
\"Hatta would have had supported the amendment,\" said historian
\nAnhar Gonggong over the weekend.<\/p>\n
Bung Hatta, as people call him affectionately, ushered the
\nnation through independence, and put an end to 350 years of
\ncolonial rule.<\/p>\n
Together with his long-time partner, founding president
\nSukarno, or Bung Karno, Hatta was the driving force behind the
\nstruggle for freedom.<\/p>\n
His thoughts remain particularly relevant today, when
\nIndonesia, for a second time, is experimenting with democracy
\nfollowing 32 years under Soeharto's iron-fisted rule and when
\npublic confidence in the country's political system has been put
\nto the test by what analysts have called short-sighted
\npoliticians neglecting their voters.<\/p>\n
\"What we must do now is repair our damaged political morality,
\nand have it built on honesty,\" Hatta said in one of his writings,
\nat a time when legislators were wrestling to draw up a new
\nConstitution.<\/p>\n
Few took note of his message, and political parties were soon
\nbrushed aside by the \"guided democracy\" of an increasingly
\nauthoritarian Sukarno.<\/p>\n
Now the same type of politicking has reemerged and a second
\ngeneration of the Sukarno family, his daughter President Megawati
\nSoekarnoputri, rule the country.<\/p>\n
Over the past few weeks, the fear that history will repeat
\nitself has arisen, as bickering lawmakers risk bringing
\nconstitutional reform talks to a standstill.<\/p>\n
\"Democracy requires fairness, which is to recognize beliefs
\nother than one's own, and to bow to the majority decision without
\nsurrendering one's own beliefs,\" Hatta added.<\/p>\n
Hatta stuck to his guns. In 1945 he signed the Jakarta
\nChapter, which demanded the Constitution include a phrase calling
\nfor the imposition of sharia (Islamic law) for Muslims.<\/p>\n
But upon complaints that it would upset the predominately
\nChristian population in eastern Indonesia, Hatta agreed to drop
\nit.<\/p>\n
Today, a few outspoken lawmakers continue to insist on the
\nsharia, while analysts dismiss such demands as simply a campaign
\nby Islamic parties.<\/p>\n
\"Hatta dared to delete it (the sharia). He had the vision it
\ntook to keep this nation together,\" political analyst Soedjati
\nDjiwandono said. \"Vision, not narrow ideology, was his driving
\nforce.\"<\/p>\n
Sukarno was a nationalist. His belief in a unitary state of
\nIndonesia became a dogma among the nationalist parties that now
\nrule the legislature.<\/p>\n
By contrast, Hatta suggested federalism, reasoning it would
\nfit with Indonesia's archipelagic state. He also coined the idea
\nof decentralization empowering the people, and had demanded a
\nprofessional military that would bow to its civilian rulers.<\/p>\n
Hatta was born on August 12, 1902 in Bukittinggi, West Sumatra
\ninto a family with a strong Islamic background; his grandfather,
\nSyekh Batu Hampar, was a prominent local ulema. His mother came
\nfrom a respectable business family.<\/p>\n
The family of Hatta's father wanted him to attend Islamic
\nschools but they eventually bowed to the wish of his mother's
\nfamily who sent him to secular, predominately Dutch schools.<\/p>\n
His father's family again gave in when Hatta continued his
\nstudies in the Netherlands, instead of Mecca or Egypt where a
\nperson in his position would have been expected to extend his
\nIslamic studies.<\/p>\n
As one of the few who could afford higher education, Hatta
\ntook a serious interest in the plight of his people under Dutch
\nrule.<\/p>\n
In the Netherlands, he joined the Indische Verenigeng (East
\nIndies Association) where he met like-minded Indonesians and
\nDutch people.<\/p>\n
Upon his return home in 1932, Hatta led the New Indonesian
\nNational Education, where, as its chairman, he first met Sukarno.
\nAt that time, both were already prominent staunch critics of
\nDutch rule.<\/p>\n
In the years after, they were arrested several times
\nseparately for their political activities, which were deemed to
\nundermine Dutch authority.<\/p>\n
The Dutch feared Sukarno's powerful charisma, which he used to
\ncall upon Indonesians to rise against their colonialist rulers.
\nHatta, meanwhile, laid the groundwork for more intellectuals to
\nenter the resistance and turn the struggle for independence into
\na sophisticated campaign.<\/p>\n
Hatta and Sukarno's real break came in the early 1940s when
\nthe Netherlands were preoccupied with World War II and when the
\nidea of independence had gained a hold across the country.<\/p>\n
By 1945, few Indonesians would have accepted anyone other than
\nSukarno and Hatta to declare Indonesia's independence.<\/p>\n
The energetic president and his rational deputy led the young
\nnation in its first 11 years.<\/p>\n
Their contradicting characters were an asset during the
\nindependence struggle. But in the years after independence, it
\ngrew into a liability.<\/p>\n
\"For Sukarno, the revolution never stopped. It was Hatta who
\nsaid it was time to stop thinking about revolution and start
\nbuilding the nation,\" said historian Anhar.<\/p>\n
Soon Hatta came to also disapprove of Sukarno's personal life.<\/p>\n
Deliar Noer in a 1990 biography of Hatta, wrote that he was
\nirked by the glamorous life Sukarno led, which he thought was
\nimproper for a president. The differences became more apparent in
\npolitics where Sukarno became too dominant in the government.<\/p>\n
In 1956, Hatta tendered his resignation over unreconcilable
\ndifferences with the president.<\/p>\n
\"He was the first official at this level to voluntarily
\nresign, after holding the post for 11 years,\" Soedjati said.<\/p>\n
Hatta died on Friday March 13, 1980. Anhar said he had showed
\nIndonesians the true value of leadership in a democracy. \"Virtue,
\nmodesty and not to think of power as something one must hang on
\nto,\" he said.<\/p>",
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