Sabam Sirait

His father, Frederick Hendra Sirait, was an employee in the Ministry of Public Works who would later become one of the founders of the Indonesian Christian Party (Parkindo).

[1] In 1965, a day after the September 1965 coup attempt, he was invited to discuss the crackdown on the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) by the Commander of the Indonesian Armed Forces as the representative of Parkindo.

The argument was rejected by all of the representatives in the discussion, and the final decision was to fully entrust the crackdown of the PKI to the Armed Forces.

The joint statement was finished and reported to the president on 12 March 1970, which stated the willingness of the political parties in the nationalist group to work together for the development of Indonesia.

He frequently brought up the matter in his first term as a member of the People's Representative Council, by drafting laws against monopolies.

In 1987, he had a debate about it for six hours with the Minister of Justice, Ismail Saleh, and the Director General of Corrections, Baharuddin Lopa.

[8] Sabam openly supported the recognition of Palestine and criticized Israel for frequent harassment of the Palestinian people.

[11] Sabam contested the 2014 Indonesian legislative election as the candidate of the Regional Representative Council for the Jakarta constituency.

[12] Even though he came fifth with 237,273 votes,[13] he was inaugurated as an ad interim member of the Regional Representative Council on 15 January 2018, replacing the late Andi Mappetahang Fatwa.

[14] Sabam stood again in the 2019 Indonesian legislative election as a candidate of the Regional Representative Council for the Jakarta constituency.

On the 50th anniversary of their wedding in Kartini Hall, Jakarta, Sabam released a book titled Berpolitik Bersama 7 Presiden (Politics with Seven Presidents).

Sabam Sirait, c. 1971
Sabam Sirait wore a scarf with the Palestinian flag to show his support for Palestine.
Sabam's ballot number was 39 as the candidate for the Regional Representative Council of Jakarta in 2019.
Inauguration of Sabam Sirait as a member of the Regional Representative Council.