Mohammad Hatta
Mohammad Hatta was an Indonesian statesman, nationalist, and independence activist who served as the country's first vice president as well as the third prime minister. Known as "The Proclamator", he and a number of Indonesians, including the first president of Indonesia, Sukarno, fought for the independence of Indonesia from the Netherlands. Hatta was an important figure during the Indonesian national awakening and during the national revolution. As a youth he was politically active in both the Netherlands and the Indies, which led him to be imprisoned in the Boven Digoel concentration camp for his activism. He also played a crucial role in the proclamation of Indonesian independence, being the second person to sign the declaration besides Sukarno, thus making him one of the founders of Indonesia.
Early life, family, and early education
Early life and family
Hatta was born in Fort De Kock on 12 August 1902 into a prominent and strongly Islamic family. His grandfather, Sheikh Abdurrahman, was a respected Naqshbandi-Khalidi murshid in Batuhampar, near Payakumbuh. His father, Haji Mohammad Djamil, died when he was eight months old and he was left with his six sisters and his mother. As in the matrilineal society of Minangkabau tradition, he was then raised in his mother's family. His mother's family was wealthy, and Hatta was able to study Dutch as well as finishing Qur'an after school.Early education
He went to the Dutch language elementary school in Padang from 1913 to 1916 after he had finished Sekolah Melayu in Bukittinggi. When he was thirteen, he passed an exam that entitled him to enroll in the Dutch secondary school in Batavia. However his mother asked him to stay in Padang because he was still too young to go to the capital alone. Hatta then entered junior secondary school or MULO.During his spare time, he worked part-time in a post office. Normally, MULO students were not allowed to work, but he was able to work there because of the HBS exam qualification. Hatta was interested in football; he joined his school's football team and was made its chairman. He broadened his sphere of contacts by using his position.
Hatta used to visit the office of the Sarikat Usaha, led by Taher Marah Soetan. In the office, he read Dutch newspapers, particularly about political debates in the Volksraad of the Dutch East Indies. It was at the age of sixteen that Hatta began to be interested in politics and national movements. He was chosen the treasurer of the branch of the Jong Sumatranen Bond, which was first established in Padang in 1918.
Time in the Netherlands
Later education
In 1919, Hatta finally went to the HBS in Batavia. He completed his study with distinction in 1921, and was allowed to continue to study at Erasmus University Rotterdam in Rotterdam. He took economics as his major and earned a doctorandus degree in 1932. The degree entitled him to follow a doctorate program. He then continued to pursue the doctorate degree, and completed all requirements to be awarded it, but he never finished his thesis. Politics had taken over Hatta's life.Struggle for independence in the Netherlands
In the Netherlands, Hatta joined the Indische Vereeniging. In 1922, the organization changed its name to Indonesische Vereeniging and later to its Indonesian translation: the Perhimpoenan Indonesia. Hatta was the treasurer, and then the chairman. On his inauguration, Hatta delivered a speech with the title of "The Economic World Structure and the Conflict of Power", in which he supported the idea of Indonesian non-cooperation with the Dutch colonial government in order to gain its independence. The Perhimpoenan Indonesia then changed from being a student organization into a political organization and had an unequivocal demand for Indonesia's independence. It expressed its voice through the magazine called Indonesia Merdeka of which Hatta was the editor.To gain more support from other nations, Hatta attended congresses all over Europe, always as the chairman of the Indonesian delegation. In 1926, Hatta and Perhimpoenan Indonesia joined the International Democratic Congress for Peace in Marc Sangnier's domaine de Bierville, France. In February 1927, Hatta went to Brussels to attend a congress held by the League Against Imperialism and Colonial Oppression. He met many other prominent nationalists there, including Jawaharlal Nehru from India, Muhammad Hafiz Ramadan Pasha from Egypt and Lamine Senghor from Senegal. Later in the year, Hatta attended another congress held by the International Women's League for Peace and Freedom in Switzerland. On that occasion, Hatta delivered a speech with the title of "Indonesia and her Independence Problem".
By the middle of 1927, Perhimpoenan Indonesias activities had alarmed the Dutch authorities. In June 1927, Dutch authorities raided the residence of the organization's leaders, searching through their rooms and putting Hatta and other four other Indonesian activists behind bars. After spending nearly six months in prison, they were taken to trial in the Hague. They were permitted to explain themselves during the hearing, and Hatta took to the opportunity to explain Indonesia's nationalist cause. He made a speech to the court explaining that Indonesia's interests were in conflict with those of the Dutch, and that was why they could not cooperate.
Hatta advocated cooperation between Indonesia and the Netherlands, but only if Indonesia was independent and treated as an equal partner, not unequally because of its status as a colony. The speech became famous and it is known as the Indonesia Vrij or Free Indonesia speech. In 1929, Hatta and other Perhimpoenan Indonesia activists were released. In July 1932, Hatta made his way home to Indonesia.
Return to Indonesia
Struggle in the Dutch East Indies
The Indonesian National Party
Hatta returned home in 1932 to an Indonesia whose nationalist momentum had been slowed down by the arrest and imprisonment of Sukarno. By the time Hatta had returned, most of the members of Sukarno's PNI had joined the Indonesia Party and more radical PNI members, together with the Dutch-educated Sutan Sjahrir had banded together to form the New PNI. Although the initials were the same, the PNI in this case stood for the Indonesian National Education, indicating that it would focus on cadre training. In August 1932, after returning from the Netherlands, Hatta became the chairman of the New PNI.In December 1932, Sukarno was finally released from prison and the attention now turned to which party Sukarno would choose. Sukarno, who had wanted one united front to gain Indonesia's independence was uncertain, thinking that in choosing one over the other, he would encourage division. In this, he was criticized by Hatta, who was more pragmatic about differences, in this case the conflict between Partindo's radical and mass party approach versus the New PNI's moderate and cadre party approach. Sukarno insisted on negotiations to unify Partindo and New PNI but after failing, chose to join Partindo.
Between 1932 and 1933, Hatta wrote articles on politics and economics for the New PNI's newspaper Daulat Rakyat. These articles were aimed at training new cadres for Indonesia's leadership.
Hatta seemed to be extremely critical of Sukarno at this point in time. In August 1933, with Sukarno once again arrested and facing trial, he wrote an article called "Sukarno Is Arrested". This was followed by articles entitled "The Tragedy of Sukarno" and "The Stance of a Leader".
Arrest and exile
The Dutch colonial government gave Sukarno a harsh punishment, exiling him to Ende on the island of Flores in December 1933. With Sukarno in exile, the Dutch colonial government now turned their eyes to the New PNI and its leadership. In February 1934, they made their move and arrested its leaders from its Jakarta branch and its Bandung branch. For a year they were jailed at prisons in Cipinang and Glodok, with Hatta spending his time in Glodok. During his time in prison, Hatta wrote a book entitled "The Economical Crisis and Capitalism".In January 1935, it was decided that Hatta and his fellow New PNI leaders would be exiled to Boven Digoel in Papua. When Hatta arrived there, he was told by the local authorities that he had two options. The first option was to work for the Dutch Colonial Government as a civil servant for 40 cents a day with the hope of returning from exile, and the second option was being an exile, receiving food but having no hope of returning from exile. Hatta commented if he had decided to take a job as a civil servant in Jakarta, he would have earned a lot of money and knowing that, there was no need to go to Boven Digoel to be paid cheaply. In saying this, Hatta chose the second option.During his exile, Hatta continued to write articles, this time for the Newspaper Pemandangan. He earned enough money from that to make ends meet at Boven Digoel and to support his colleagues who had financial troubles. Hatta also used his books to give his colleagues lessons on economics, history, and philosophy. Later on these lessons would be made into books entitled "An Introduction on the Way to Knowledge" and "The Nature of Greek Thought".
In January 1936, Hatta and Syahrir were transferred to Bandaneira in Maluku. There they joined more nationalists such as Iwa Kusumasumantri and Dr. Cipto Mangunkusumo. Hatta and Syahrir were given more freedom and were able to interact with the locals. Hatta and Syahrir also gave lessons to the local children, teaching them about politics and history. Hatta adopted a local boy, Des Alwi, as his son while living in Bandaneira. Alwi would become a prominent Indonesian historian and diplomat. In February 1942, Hatta and Syahrir were transferred to Sukabumi in West Java.