Amir Sjarifuddin

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Amir Sjarifuddin (1907-1948) was a left-wing politician, one of the Indonesian Republic's first leaders. He became Prime Minister of the new Indonesian Republic in 1947 after succeeding Sutan Sjahrir. Amir was then overthrown and replaced by Mohammad Hatta, the vice-president of the republic. After that, he joined the People Democratic Front (FDR) lead by Musso, the leader of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), to opposite Hatta. After the defeat of the FDR rebel on September 18-19, 1948, Amir was then executed by the Indonesian government as a rebel for his crimes against the people.

An interesting, yet little known fact about Sjarifoeddin is that he was in fact a practicing Christian, and has been documented on numerous occasions being up on the pulpit at the largest Batak church, at Kernolong in Batavia. Although being completely nationalistic, his faith led him to be accused of being "subvertient to the European masters" on several occasions.

Amir converted to Christianity in 1931, whereby his fervently Islamic mother carried out her threat to commit suicide.