Hamzah Haz

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Hamzah Haz

9th Vice President of Indonesia
In office July 23, 2001 – October 20, 2004
President	Megawati Sukarnoputri
Preceded by	Megawati Sukarnoputri
Succeeded by	Jusuf Kalla

Born	February 15, 1940 Ketapang, West Kalimantan
Political party	United Development Party
Religion	Islam

Hamzah Haz is an Indonesian politician born in Ketapang, West Kalimantan on 15 February 1940. He is the head of the United Development Party (PPP) and served as the ninth Vice-President from 2001 until 2004. He is sometimes known as Dr. Hamzah based on having obtained a Ph.D. from American World University, an internet diploma mill, for $2,500.

In the 2004 Indonesian Presidential Election, Hamzah Haz was one of the presidential candidates, running with team-mate Agum Gumelar. The pair finished last among the five candidates, garnering only 3% of the total vote.

Haz is also known as an apologist for and friend of Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, who is the spiritual leader for the terrorist organization Jemaah Islamiyah. Haz invited Ba'asyir to dinner while he was Vice President, and visited Ba'asyir's jihadist pesantren (religious school) in Pondok Ngruki. Haz denied that Ba'asyir was connected to terrorism up until Ba'asyir's arrest in October 2002.

In September 2003 Haz stated, "Actually, who is the terrorist, who is against human rights? The answer is the United States because they attacked Iraq. Moreover, it is the terrorist king, waging war." ^[1]

[edit] Personal life

Officially, according to the Office of Vice President ^[2], Hamzah married to two wives: Asmaniah (b. 27 July 1942) and Titin Kartini (b. 4 May 1946). He has a total of 12 children from the official wives. However, other source ^[3] indicated that he has in fact three wives. His third wife is Soraya, and she bore three children from Hamzah. However, Hamzah does not officially admit to having a third wife.

His son, Nur Agus Haz, is a member of parliament for the United Development Party^[4]