Hazairin (Gelar Pangeran Alamsyah Harahap; 28 November 1906 – 11 December 1975) was the Indonesia's Minister of Home Affairs 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. After graduation, Hazairin returned to Bengkulu under the tutelage of B. Ter Haar, a respected Dutch expert on adat, to study the Rejang people there. Using the results as the basis for his dissertation, entitled "De Redjang" ("The Rejang"), he received a doctorate on 29 May 1936. He was the only native Indonesian doctor to graduate from the Batavia Institute of Law. From 1935 until 1938 he also served as a guest lecturer at the institution. In 1938 Hazairin obtained a post at a court in Padang Sidempuan, North Sumatra, where he stayed until the Japanese invaded the Indies in 1942; during the same period he served to enforce adat law throughout South Tapanuli. Throughout the Japanese occupation, he served as one of their legal advisers. After Indonesia's independence in 1945, Hazairin served as chief justice of the South Tapanuli court. He also served on the Central Indonesian National Committee. In 1946, he was promoted to regent (residen) of Bengkulu, also becoming the Vice Military Governor of South Sumatra; during his time as regent, he released his own currency to bolster the faltering economy of the region. In 1948, he served as head of the Great Indonesia Party (Partai Indonesia Raya), an offshoot of the Indonesian National Party, which he had helped found. In 1950 Hazairin returned to Jakarta, becoming