Hamzah Haz (born 15 February 1940) is an Indonesian politician who served as the 9th vice president of Indonesia from 2001 to 2004 under President Megawati Sukarnoputri. Prior to serving as vice president, Hamzah served as a cabinet minister and a member of the People's Representative Council (DPR). He also chaired the United Development Party (PPP) from 1998 to 2007, and was the party's presidential candidate in the 2004 Indonesian presidential election. Career Hamzah was a newspaper journalist in his home town of Pontianak, on the island of Borneo, and later taught economics at Tanjungpura University. His political career began in 1968 as a member of the West Kalimantan Provincial Representative Council. He later moved to Jakarta, became a member of the Parliament in 1971, first as a member of the Muslim Nahdlatul Ulama Party. After the political fusion which joined all Islamist parties into one party and the withdrawal of Nahdlatul Ulama from politics, he became in 1973 a member of the newly formed Partai Persatuan Pembangunan (PPP). Hamzah served as Minister for Investment under President B. J. Habibie, who replaced Suharto, then resigned that post to lead the PPP in the 1999 elections. He joined the cabinet of President Abdurrahman Wahid, then became the first to quit Wahid's first cabinet, resigning as Minister for People's Welfare after just two months. He became a vocal critic of Wahid, but he is also known for his ability to compromise. By the time of Wahid's impeachment in the summer of 2001, Hamzah was leader of the PPP, then the third-largest party in the Indonesian Parliament. As such, he became the obvious choice for the members of People's Consultative Assembly to fill the vacancy of Vice President's office, as Megawati Sukarnoputri moved up to the Presidency. In the 2004 presidential election, Hamzah was one of the presidential candidates, running with Agum Gumelar. The pair finished last among the five candidates, garnering only 3 percent of the total vote. Connections with militant Islamism A number of journalists and commentators have reported that Hamzah is believed to offer support for militant Muslim groups as a way of gaining political support from them. In 2002, Bill Guerin, in an opinion piece in the Asia Times wrote, "Hamzah ... is widely seen as blatantly vying for support from among Indonesian Muslims, including the militant groups, to strengthen his run for the presidency in the country's next