Mahyuddin was born on 14 September 1947 as the fourth son of the seven children of Natimbul and Same'a in the village of Tanjungkurung, located in the Lahat Regency.

[3] A political scandal occurred after the election, when fifteen MPs from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) endorsed Syahrial instead of party-approved Rosihan.

[4] Megawati Soekarnoputri, the president of Indonesia at that time who was the chairwoman of the PDI-P delayed the confirmation of the results due to this scandal.

[4] Then-governor of South Sumatra, Syahrial Oesman, resigned from the post on 19 June 2008 to run in the upcoming gubernatorial election.

[9] Mahyuddin was elected into the People's Representative Council after gaining 75,695 votes from the South Sumatra I electoral district.

[2] He was assigned to the Commission X of the People's Representative Council, which handles education, youth affairs, sports, tourism, art and culture.