Amir Syamsuddin recounts his tough life

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."