Munawir Sjadzali dies at 78

Munawir Sjadzali dies at 78

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Former minister of religious affairs and chairman of the National
Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) Munawir Sjadzali, 78,
died on Friday at Pondok Indah Hospital, after six weeks of
treatment for a stroke.

Munawir died at 11:20 a.m., his family said in statement.

"He died peacefully, surrounded by his entire family," one of
his sons, Mustain, told Antara.

He is to be interred on Saturday at Giri Tama Tonjong public
cemetery in Parung, Bogor.

Born in the Central Java town of Klaten on Nov. 7, 1925,
Munawir served two terms as religious minister between 1983 and
1993 under Soeharto.

Soeharto also appointed him a member of the Supreme Advisory
Council for the 1993-1998 period and chairman of Komnas HAM in
1996, replacing the late Ali Said.

Prior to his ministerial appointment, Munawir was a career
diplomat who had been posted in Washington, Sri Lanka and London
as a senior diplomat and as ambassador to the Arab Emirates,
Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Munawir was also known as a scholar on Islam and was a post-
graduate lecturer at the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic
University (UIN), which awarded him with an honorary doctorate in
1994. He had traveled abroad in his academic capacity, and was a
visiting lecturer at the Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill
University, Canada, and at Leiden University in the Netherlands.

He published several books on Islam, including Can Indonesia
Adopt Islam as a Foundation and Islam and State Administration.

He was bestowed several medals for his contributions from the
Indonesian as well as foreign governments, including the Great
Gordon Merit from Qatar, Medallion of the Order of Kuwait and the
Order of the Yugoslav Flag with Golden Wreath.

Munawir is survived by his wife and six children.