Amien Rais

His mother, Sudalmiyah, was born in 1912 and was an activist in Aisyiyah, a Muhammadiyah's women organization and had been its chairperson for 20 years.

She graduated from Muhammadiyah's teaching school 'Hogere Indlansche Kweekschool'.

Muhammad Amien Rais (born 26 April 1944) is an Indonesian politician.

She was a member of Masyumi party in the 1950s.

She was awarded 'The Central Java Best Mother' in 1985 and died in 2001.

After his studies in the United States, he was a Middle East specialist and was noted for being a critic of US foreign policy.

Controversially, Rais learned a lot about human rights and democracy in the US.

Amien Rais' activities in Muhammadiyah began in 1985 when he led The Council of Preacher (Majelis Tabligh).

Later in 1990, Rais was vice chairman elected in a convention (muktamar) in Yogyakarta.

Amien Rais was also active in the newly established Indonesian Association of Muslim Intellectuals (ICMI), a Muslim scholars association.

In 1993, at a Muhammadiyah mid-term meeting (Tanwir) in Surabaya, Rais urged a presidential succession, a very rare issue amid the New Order regime.

The political and economical decay in Indonesia during the 90s had Rais call for a controversial issue: political reform.

Amien Rais' calls were one of the many catalysts that led to the eventual downfall of the New Order regime.

This made him enemy number one of the Suharto administration.

Amien Rais was the leader of Muhammadiyah, one of the two biggest Muslim organizations in Indonesia, from 1995 to 2000.

In 1995, Rais replaced Azhar Basyir, then the chairman of Muhammadiyah, who died soon after his re-election.

Rais led ICMI's Expert Council, but resigned in 1997 under pressure from Suharto because he argued on the Busang and the Freeport cases.

He was one of the leaders of the reform movement that forced the resignation of President Suharto in 1998.

In 1998, Amien Rais became an outspoken critic, and allied himself with the reform movement.

However, this would also force the New Order regime to ban any demonstration reflecting the people's voice regarding Reformasi. In May 1998, Jakarta was in chaos following rioting in some parts of the city.

The army and the police forces were unable to handle the situation.

Meanwhile, President Suharto embarked on a state visit to Cairo, Egypt.

Upon his return from Cairo, Suharto learned that the situation was out of control.

Several days later, he invited some prominent Muslim figures – including Abdurrahman Wahid, Emha Ainun Najib, Nurcholish Madjid and Malik Fajar – to discuss the nation's current condition.

Suharto proposed to establish a Reform Committee, to reshuffle the cabinet ministers and to resign from the presidency within 6 months.

This was not responded to by those who attended the meeting.

Suharto panicked as 14 of his ministers resigned from the cabinet.

On 20 May, Amien Rais cancelled the mass rally to Monas square as an army general threatened to make "another Tiananmen" should he do so.

Less than 24 hours later, Suharto resigned from his office and was replaced by Vice President B.J. Habibie.

Amien Rais and other reformists established the National Mandate Party (Partai Amanat Nasional/PAN) on 6 August 1998.

Amien Rais was elected its first chairman with Faisal Basri as secretary general.

Therefore, his position in Muhammadiyah was replaced by vice chairman Ahmad Syafi'i Maarif.

He was the Chairman of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) from 1999 to 2004.

During his chairmanship, the MPR passed a series of amendments to the Constitution of Indonesia.

These amendments, among other things, established direct presidential elections, a presidential term limit (two terms), and the Constitutional Court.

Amien Rais was born in Surakarta, Central Java, as the second child of Suhud Rais and Sudalmiyah Rais.

The couple were Muhammadiyah activists in Surakarta.

His father, Suhud Rais, graduated from Muhammadiyah's Mualimin high school.

He worked in Surakarta's religion affairs office.

He also was a member of Muhammadiyah's Board of Education in the Surakarta chapter.