Muhammad Yunan Nasution, noted ulema, dies at 83

JAKARTA (JP): Muhammad Yunan Nasution, former Moslem politician-cum-journalist, independence fighter and one of Indonesia's most respected ulemas, died here on Friday aged 83.

Hundreds of people paid their last respects while Yunan laid in state at his home on Jl. Cipedak, Cipinang, South Jakarta, on Friday night. Among those expressing condolences included Minister of Religious Affairs Tarmizi Taher and Armed Forces Chief Gen. Feisal Tanjung, according to Republika daily.

Hundreds others yesterday prayed for him at Al Azhar Grand Mosque and later attended his funeral at the Tanah Kusir public cemetery in South Jakarta.

Yunan was buried next to his first wife who died in 1967. He is survived by his second wife, Amirsani, and four children as well as great number of grandchildren from his first wife, Nadimah.

Yunan died a week after his birthday on Nov. 22, and only hours after his family took him to the Jakarta Islamic Hospital because of a fever.

The illustrious Moslem leader was born in 1913 in Nopan Botung, North Sumatra. In his lifetime, he was once a legislator at the House of Representatives. He was also the secretary- general of Masyumi, an Islamic political party with great clout in the 1950s, and chief editor of Pedoman Masyarakat magazine in Medan between 1935 and 1940, and of Abadi daily from 1956 to 1960.

He was also part of the Majelis Hikmah, a think tank of the Muhammadiyah Moslem organization. He was also a member of the Indonesian National Central Committee (KNIP), an advisory body to the president established in 1945.

Yunan wrote at least 40 books on various issues, especially Islam and community development. Ill health and old age forced him to stop writing in the past year.

One of his famous works is a book titled Di Balik Terali Orde Lama (Behind Old Order Bars) which he completed when he was serving time as a political prisoner at the Madiun Penitentiary in East Java during the Old Order regime under the late president Sukarno.

As did a number of Masyumi's leaders, Yunan became a political victim of the time and was jailed without due legal process. (ste)