Amir Syamsuddin recounts his tough life

By K. Basrie

JAKARTA (JP): During his childhood, even a plate of rice was a luxury for Amir Syamsuddin. Today, as one of the country's most prominent lawyers, he earns Rp 2 billion (US$832,300) a year, drives the latest Mercedes Benz and belongs to several exclusive golf clubs.

"My life's journey hasn't been so beautiful," recalled 55-year-old Amir, who has been in the media spotlight for the past few years due to the "big" criminal cases he's handled. The latest is the case of "Ecstasy Queen" Zarina, who is being tried for the illegal possession of thousands of Ecstasy pills.

Amir once worked in a bakery, in a photo studio, as a log supplier, a smuggler of goods between Sumatra and Singapore, an interisland trader and as a forest concessionaire.

"I was obsessed with earning as much money as I could so I could wear fine clothes, shoes and wristwatches like Bapak Jaksa (Mr. Prosecutor) A.A. Baramuli, who I saw in my hometown in South Sulawesi when I was 12," said Amir.

Baramuli, who resigned from his profession as a prosecutor long ago, was once an outspoken legislator and is now a member of the National Commission on Human Rights.

In Amir's eyes, a prosecutor was more than a well-to-do man, he was also "a great man".

"In my mind as a little boy, I thought that Bapak Jaksa was a great man because he always wore fine clothing and helped people in court," Amir said. "I didn't know anything about being a lawyer at that time."

Amir was born in Ujungpandang on May 27, 1941. His father was killed in an accident when he was eight months old.

"My mother said he was a son of a Chinese-Javanese couple, and people usually called him Ambo (Father) Tang.

"The name probably derived from a Chinese family named Tan," he said, adding that he has never tried to explore his father's bloodline or find his relatives that are still alive.

Amir and his eight brothers and sisters were taken care of by their mother until she married again.

"Our stepfather was the most kindhearted man that I've ever known," Amir said. "Could you tell me where on earth one could find a man who wants to marry a widow of nine children?"

Amir said he became totally independent from his parents at 19.

"At that age, I had enough money and wore clothes and shoes with good brand-names," Amir said.

Like many local teenagers, Amir left Ujungpandang to study in Surabaya. He went to SMA Widya Kusuma high school. Early in the morning, he worked as a bakery boy and in the evening, after school, he worked in a photo studio.

After graduating, he crossed the Java Sea to Palembang, in southern Sumatra. In Sumatra he started his own business and became a small "godfather". He bought and sold various goods in Singapore and Sumatra.

While running trade activities between Sumatra and South Sulawesi, Amir regularly did business with Eka Tjipta Widjaja, who was then a small-scale palm oil trader in Manado. Eka now heads Sinar Mas Group and is one of Indonesia's business tycoons.

"He might have forgotten me but I will never forget him with his short pants," said Amir.

He came to Jakarta in 1965 and ran different types of businesses, including a travel agent and an automotive repair shop. He also held a 200,000-hectare forest concession in South Sulawesi.

Hard work

After working hard for 15 years, he thought back to his childhood dream of becoming a prosecutor. He was then 35 and leading a good life with a trading firm in Jakarta. He decided to go to law school.

It was not an easy mission. He forgot to bring his high school certificate with him when he left Surabaya for Sumatra.

"I rushed to my former high school to get my certificate."

He was surprised when he arrived at the school in the Tunjungan area of Surabaya. "My school was no longer there," he said. "I couldn't even find the home address of my headmaster".

Amir went back to Jakarta empty-handed, but refused to give up. In 1977, he enrolled at Taman Madya high school in Jatinegara, which had opened classes for adult students.

"I was the only senior-age student at the school. It was funny to be in the same class with students who were the same ages as my children," he said laughing.

The following year, he enrolled in the University of Indonesia's law school. During his second year, Amir was invited by his old friend, O.C. Kaligis, to work at his law firm.

When he got his degree four and a half years later, he was 43!

In 1984, Amir opened his own law firm in a rented office in a building on Jl. KH Hasyim Ashari in West Jakarta before moving to his own building in the Cikini area of Central Jakarta. After handling several big criminal cases, his name started to become known.

He once managed to free a worker who had been accused of fatally torturing his girlfriend and a maid at her employer's house in Kalimalang, East Jakarta.

A satpam (security guard) charged for stabbing to death a preman (hoodlum) at the Kramat Jati market in East Jakarta was exonerated from all charges when Amir was able to convince the court that the defendant had committed the action in self- defense.

Three of his other clients, all young Indians, were cleared of charges that they had killed a man, whose body was found in the Ambon sea, to get the US$2 million in insurance money. The three suspects flew to Bombay but Amir was able to bring them back to Indonesia and convince the court that they had nothing to do with the killing.

Amir has also gone up against the politically powerful. One case involved Probosutedjo, a stepbrother of President Soeharto, and the defunct Tempo weekly. In the 1980s, Tempo was sued for libel, but Amir was able to settle the case amicably. When Tempo's publishing license was revoked by the government in 1994, Amir was one of the lawyers for the magazine.

He said he never feared that his business would be affected by his roles in the Tempo cases. Instead, he said: "What I had was pride."

Amir becomes more popular with every high-profile case he handles. Among the most well-known are the L.A. triple murder case of Oki and the case of Zarina, the Ecstasy suspect who once escaped from police custody and flew to the United States.

Amir, whose service fee is $300 per hour, now occupies an office space in the elite business area of Kuningan, South Jakarta.

He and his team of 20 lawyers set an annual target of at least 450 cases, including corporate, labor and criminal cases.

After reaching such heights, what's his next mission?

"Looking back on my childhood, I think I'm just like grass that grows by itself. We'll have to wait and see," said Amir, who learned English by listening to the BBC and Radio Australia.

Amir's personal life is as intricate as his career journey. He has been married three times.

"It's a good lesson for me," he said, referring to his two divorces, which gave him Amiruddin Syam, 33, Irawadi Syamsuddin, 30, Taufik Syamsuddin, 28, Ade Ratih, 26, and Ade Yasmin, 19.

Amir now lives with his third wife, Sylvia, and their three- year-old son, but said that he is close to all of his children.

Irawadi, for instance, works at his law firm.

"My life's journey hasn't been so great. It's the journey and the people around me that make my life meaningful."