Hazairin

Hazairin (born Gelar Pangeran Alamsyah Harahap on 28 November 1906 – died 11 December 1975) was the Minister of Internal Affairs of Indonesia from 30 July 1953 to 18 November 1954, serving in the First Ali Sastroamidjojo Cabinet.

Biography

Hazairin was born in Bukittinggi, West Sumatra, Dutch East Indies on 28 November 1906 to a strict religious family of Persian descent. His father, Zakaria Bahar, was a teacher from Bengkulu and his mother was of Minangkabau descent. As a child, he moved to Bengkulu to begin his schooling at a Hollands Indlandsche School, or Dutch school for Native Indonesians. After graduating in 1920, he moved to Padang to study at a Meer Uitgebreid Lager Onderwijs, graduating in 1924. During the same period, he studied Arabic and the Quran with his grandfather, expanding on his Islamic studies in his own time.

Hazairin later left for Bandung, in West Java, to study at the Algemene Middelbare School there, graduating in 1927. He then went to Batavia (modern day Jakarta) to study at the Institute of Law (Rechtkundige Hoogeschool), focusing on adat law. He graduated in 1935.