Abdul Kahar Muzakkar

Abdul Kahar Muzakkar (24 March 1921 – 3 February 1965) was the leader of an Islamic movement in South Sulawesi from 1950 till his death in 1965.

He led his group of men in a guerrilla warfare against the Indonesian central government, and was finally killed by the army in the jungle.

He was also the leader of the South Sulawesi branch of the Darul Islam movement.

Born on 24 March 1921 in the Kingdom of Luwu, a smaller principality on the northern end of the Gulf of Bone, Abdul Kahar Muzakkar was formerly known as Ladomeng.

Ladomeng is a Buginese word derived from 'dominoes', an allusion to his father who was playing cards at the time he was born.

His father, Malinrang, was reportedly a businessman who was from the lower aristocracy class.

Their family owned many lands, a sign of wealth at that period of time.

Kahar completed elementary school in 1934, and his parents then sent him to Muhammadiyah Standard School in Palopo (capital of Luwu) for 4 years.

He was then sent to Solo in Central Java to study in the Kweekschool Muhammadiyah (Islamic Teachers College) from 1938 to 1941.

It was in this last institution that Kahar was introduced to a number of prominent ulema, including a prominent modernist Muslim nationalist, Abdul Kahar Muzakkir.

In fact, some people claimed that it was contact with this ulema that prompted Kahar to change his name from Ladomeng.

There were other views, though, that Kahar had his name changed before he went to Solo, whilst according to Tommy Thomson, Kahar's former guard in the jungle, Kahar's 2 close friends, Jufri Tambora and Siddiq Bakri had been the one who asked Ladomeng to change his name to Kahar.

According to sources, Kahar was average as a student, and that his strength lay not in formal education, but in creativity and talent in dealing with problems.

In fact, Kahar did not even complete kweekschool, partly because he married Walimah, a girl from Solo who was his first wife.

Kahar remained active in Hizbul Wathan until the arrival of the Japanese in 1942.

During the Japanese occupation, Kahar worked as a clerk at the Nippon Hodobu, an information agency in Makassar under the Japanese authority.

It was with Walimah that he then returned to Palopo, teaching at a Muhammadiyah school until 1943.

Though not an exceptional student, Kahar was actively involved in organizations, particularly after he had returned to Palopo.

He joined the local Hizbul Wathan, the youth organization for Muhammadiyah, and was active in his opposition to what he called the feudal system in Luwu, and called for an end to the aristocracy.

His opposition gained him many support from the Luwu youths.

In 1943, Kahar was sentenced by the Hadat (governing council) of the kingdom of Luwu to ripaopangitana [literally, to put someone or something face downward on the land], or simply to treat someone as dead.

This form of punishment not only banishes the person from the kingdom, but also causes him to sever all ties which a Bugis or Makassar person is dependent on.

There were varied accounts for the reason for such a sentence, all indicating that Kahar had alienated and angered the ruling powers in Luwu, particularly in his position as an activist of Hizbul Wathan.

There are views that Kahar criticized the belief in Sawerigading, which claims that only the descendants of the Sawerigading can rule Luwu.

According to his sister, Sulaeha, Kahar asked the aristocrats to discard the use of aristocratic titles, such as opu, due to its inherent discrimination.

Military documentation also disclosed that Kahar rejected the tradition of bowing the knees before aristocrats.

He also acted in ways that oppose the traditional system of his homeland, such as marrying a Javanese girl at a time when cross cultural marriages were not common in the Buginese tradition.

According to Barbara Harvey, the versions of reasons for Kahar's exile are as many as the persons who spoke about it.

Mukhlis, in his writing, attempted to interpret Kahar's punishment, concluding that he broke 2 main rules: Mapparibokoang Arung (guilty of self-importance and abusing his position) and he did mpleo weloie Arung (attempted to overthrow of the rulers' position) in his position as a Hizbul Wathan activist.

At the time Kahar was expelled, he swore to return and marry a descendant of the Pajung (king), a prophecy which came true as he later married Andi Haliah, the granddaughter of the Pajung.

After his exile in 1943, Kahar moved to Java and set up a merchandise company known as Semangat Muda (Spirit of Youth).

He also established a shop called Toko Luwu. It was through this business that Kahar entered the Indonesian nationalist movement.

His company was used by him and his colleagues from South Sulawesi to establish an organization, Gerakan Pemuda Indonesia Sulawesi (Indonesian Youth Movement of Sulawesi, GEPIS) on 10 October 1945.

This organization was later renamed Angkatan Pemuda Indonesia Sulawesi (Sulawesi Indonesian Youth Movement, APIS).

This renamed organization became a part of the Angkatan Pemuda Indonesia (API) and was nationally recognized.

In one of his writings, Kahar revealed that he was one of Sukarno's bodyguards when the latter gave one of his first mass speeches in September 1945.

He was the person, armed with only a machete, who was prepared to protect Sukarno and Hatta against the bayonets of the Japanese soldiers who tried to disperse the meeting and who encircled the car in which Sukarno and Hatta were driving.

Kahar's role as bodyguard is not in question, with photographic evidence.

According to Hamdan Juhannis, even Ukkas Arifin, a former nationalist activist in Kahar's movement who later became a member of the Republican military, revealed in his writing that he had witnessed the bravery of Kahar in guarding Sukarno in the same meeting.

Kahar helped in the founding of Kebaktian Rakyat Indonesia Sulawesi (Loyalty of the Indonesian People from Sulawesi, KRIS), along with A. "Zus" Ratulangie, daughter of the Republican Governor of Sulawesi.