Hatta remembered as nation amends Constitution

Hatta remembered as nation amends Constitution

Berni K. Moestafa and Febiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post,
Jakarta

"Every group is competing with each other in a scramble for
profit. One's own group comes first, the community as a whole is
forgotten."

Words that aptly describe today's political scene, yet were
spoken 42 years ago by disgruntled vice president Mohammad Hatta
just days before he resigned on Dec. 1, 1956.

Hatta was born 100 years ago today, but his message is still
apt at a time the nation he helped found tries to kickstart a
faltering democracy with an amended 1945 Constitution, which he
helped to draft.

On Sunday, lawmakers completed the amendment of the 1945
Constitution, achieving what their predecessors some 50 years ago
tried, but failed.

"Hatta would have had supported the amendment," said historian
Anhar Gonggong over the weekend.

Bung Hatta, as people call him affectionately, ushered the
nation through independence, and put an end to 350 years of
colonial rule.

Together with his long-time partner, founding president
Sukarno, or Bung Karno, Hatta was the driving force behind the
struggle for freedom.

His thoughts remain particularly relevant today, when
Indonesia, for a second time, is experimenting with democracy
following 32 years under Soeharto's iron-fisted rule and when
public confidence in the country's political system has been put
to the test by what analysts have called short-sighted
politicians neglecting their voters.

"What we must do now is repair our damaged political morality,
and have it built on honesty," Hatta said in one of his writings,
at a time when legislators were wrestling to draw up a new
Constitution.

Few took note of his message, and political parties were soon
brushed aside by the "guided democracy" of an increasingly
authoritarian Sukarno.

Now the same type of politicking has reemerged and a second
generation of the Sukarno family, his daughter President Megawati
Soekarnoputri, rule the country.

Over the past few weeks, the fear that history will repeat
itself has arisen, as bickering lawmakers risk bringing
constitutional reform talks to a standstill.

"Democracy requires fairness, which is to recognize beliefs
other than one's own, and to bow to the majority decision without
surrendering one's own beliefs," Hatta added.

Hatta stuck to his guns. In 1945 he signed the Jakarta
Chapter, which demanded the Constitution include a phrase calling
for the imposition of sharia (Islamic law) for Muslims.

But upon complaints that it would upset the predominately
Christian population in eastern Indonesia, Hatta agreed to drop
it.

Today, a few outspoken lawmakers continue to insist on the
sharia, while analysts dismiss such demands as simply a campaign
by Islamic parties.

"Hatta dared to delete it (the sharia). He had the vision it
took to keep this nation together," political analyst Soedjati
Djiwandono said. "Vision, not narrow ideology, was his driving
force."

Sukarno was a nationalist. His belief in a unitary state of
Indonesia became a dogma among the nationalist parties that now
rule the legislature.

By contrast, Hatta suggested federalism, reasoning it would
fit with Indonesia's archipelagic state. He also coined the idea
of decentralization empowering the people, and had demanded a
professional military that would bow to its civilian rulers.

Hatta was born on August 12, 1902 in Bukittinggi, West Sumatra
into a family with a strong Islamic background; his grandfather,
Syekh Batu Hampar, was a prominent local ulema. His mother came
from a respectable business family.

The family of Hatta's father wanted him to attend Islamic
schools but they eventually bowed to the wish of his mother's
family who sent him to secular, predominately Dutch schools.

His father's family again gave in when Hatta continued his
studies in the Netherlands, instead of Mecca or Egypt where a
person in his position would have been expected to extend his
Islamic studies.

As one of the few who could afford higher education, Hatta
took a serious interest in the plight of his people under Dutch
rule.

In the Netherlands, he joined the Indische Verenigeng (East
Indies Association) where he met like-minded Indonesians and
Dutch people.

Upon his return home in 1932, Hatta led the New Indonesian
National Education, where, as its chairman, he first met Sukarno.
At that time, both were already prominent staunch critics of
Dutch rule.

In the years after, they were arrested several times
separately for their political activities, which were deemed to
undermine Dutch authority.

The Dutch feared Sukarno's powerful charisma, which he used to
call upon Indonesians to rise against their colonialist rulers.
Hatta, meanwhile, laid the groundwork for more intellectuals to
enter the resistance and turn the struggle for independence into
a sophisticated campaign.

Hatta and Sukarno's real break came in the early 1940s when
the Netherlands were preoccupied with World War II and when the
idea of independence had gained a hold across the country.

By 1945, few Indonesians would have accepted anyone other than
Sukarno and Hatta to declare Indonesia's independence.

The energetic president and his rational deputy led the young
nation in its first 11 years.

Their contradicting characters were an asset during the
independence struggle. But in the years after independence, it
grew into a liability.

"For Sukarno, the revolution never stopped. It was Hatta who
said it was time to stop thinking about revolution and start
building the nation," said historian Anhar.

Soon Hatta came to also disapprove of Sukarno's personal life.

Deliar Noer in a 1990 biography of Hatta, wrote that he was
irked by the glamorous life Sukarno led, which he thought was
improper for a president. The differences became more apparent in
politics where Sukarno became too dominant in the government.

In 1956, Hatta tendered his resignation over unreconcilable
differences with the president.

"He was the first official at this level to voluntarily
resign, after holding the post for 11 years," Soedjati said.

Hatta died on Friday March 13, 1980. Anhar said he had showed
Indonesians the true value of leadership in a democracy. "Virtue,
modesty and not to think of power as something one must hang on
to," he said.