Minangkabau People - Notable Minangkabau

Notable Minangkabau

The Minangkabau are known as the educated society and therefore they are spread across Indonesia and even foreign countries in a variety of professions and expertise such as politicians, writers, scholars, teachers, journalists, and businesspeople. Based on a relatively small population, Minangkabau is one of the most successful. Based on Tempo magazine (2000 New Year special edition), six of the top ten most influential Indonesians of the 20th century were Minang. Three out of the four Indonesian founding fathers are Minangkabau people.

Many of Minangkabau people had prominent positions in the Indonesian and Malay nationalism movement. In 1920–1960, the political leader in Indonesian dominated by Minangkabau people, such as Mohammad Hatta a former Indonesian government prime minister and vice president, Agus Salim a former Indonesian government minister, Tan Malaka international communist leader and founder of PARI and Murba, Sutan Sjahrir a former Indonesian government prime minister and founder of Socialist Party of Indonesia, Muhammad Natsir a former Indonesian government prime minister and founder of Masyumi, Assaat a former Indonesian president, and Abdul Halim a former Indonesian government prime minister. While liberal democracy era, Minangkabau politician had dominated of parliament and Indonesian cabinet. They were affiliated to all of the existing factions, Islamist, nationalist, socialist and communist.

Minangkabau writers and journalist made significant contributions to modern Indonesian literature. They are Marah Roesli, Abdul Muis, Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana, Idrus, Hamka, Ali Akbar Navis as authors, Muhammad Yamin, Chairil Anwar, Taufik Ismail as poets, and Djamaluddin Adinegoro, Rosihan Anwar, Ani Idrus as journalist. Most of the prominent Indonesian novels were written by Minangkabau writers and later influenced the development of modern Indonesian language.

There are also significant number of Minangkabau people that were known as celebrity, artist, singer, film director, and producer. They raised to be famous entertainer, such as Usmar Ismail, Arizal, and Asrul Sani as film director, Soekarno M. Noer, Dorce Gamalama, and Nirina Zubir as celebrity.

Nowadays, beside Chinese Indonesian, Minangkabau people have significant contributions in economic activities. Most of Minangkabau businessmen success in hospitality, media, healthcare, and textile trader. Minangkabau businessmen also prominent in traditional restaurant chain that settled in many cities of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. The success figure such as Abdul Latief, Basrizal Koto, and Tunku Tan Sri Abdullah.

Minangs had settled outside West Sumatra since 14th century. The Minangkabaus were moved to the state of Negeri Sembilan in the 14th century and began to control local politics. In 1773 Raja Melewar was appointed the first head of state of Negeri Sembilan. People of Minangkabau descent who made significant contributions outside of Indonesia include Yusof bin Ishak, who was the first President of Singapore, Tuanku Abdul Rahman, was the first Supreme Head of State (Yang di-Pertuan Agong) of the Federation of Malaya, Zubir Said, who composed the national anthem of Singapore Majulah Singapura, World War II hero Lieutenant Adnan Bin Saidi, and Ahmad Khatib, the imam (head) of the Shafi'i school of law at the mosque of Mecca (Masjid al-Haram).