Harun Thohir or Harun Bin Said (birth name Tahir Bin Mandir) (1943–1968) was an

Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesian ...

soldier born in

Bawean Island Bawean ( id, Pulau Bawean) is an island of Indonesia located approximately north of Surabaya in the Java Sea, off the coast of Java. It is administered by Gresik Regency of East Java province. It is approximately in diameter and is circumn ...

East Java East Java ( id, Jawa Timur) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia located in the easternmost hemisphere of Java island. It has a land border only with the province of Central Java to the west; the Java Sea and the Indian Ocean bord ...

, on 4 April 1943 to Mahdar and Aswiyani, while another source stated that he was born on 14 April 1943. He was one of a three-member special forces team part of the

Indonesian Marine Corps '' ("Glorious on the Land and Sea") , colors = , colors_label = Beret color , march = Mars Korps Marinir , mascot = , equipment = ...

(the others being

Usman bin Haji Muhammad Ali Second Sergeant Usman bin Haji Muhammad Ali (18 March 1943 – 17 October 1968), also spelt Osman bin Haji Mohamed Ali, was an Indonesian marine and convicted murderer. He uses the aliases Janatin or Usman Janatin during his task of bombing the ...

, alias "Janatin" and Gani Bin Arup) whom carried out the

MacDonald House bombing The MacDonald House bombing was a sabotage attack on the MacDonald House building in Orchard Road, Singapore, on 10 March 1965, just a few months before Singapore's expulsion from Malaysia. The nitroglycerin bomb was planted by Indonesian sab ...

in Singapore during the Indonesia-Malaysia Confrontation that killed three civilians, and following his capture, he was hanged for murder.

Name

Although his real name was Tahir bin Mandar, during the sabotage mission in Singapore, he used a false name, "Harun Bin Said". The false name of "Harun Bin Said" was given by Harun's team leader Captain Paulus Subekti

Military career

Harun joined the Indonesian Marines in June 1964 and after five months training in

Riau Riau is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the central eastern coast of Sumatra along the Strait of Malacca. The province shares land borders with North Sumatra to the northwest, West Sumatra to the west, and Jambi to the south. Accord ...

, he was promoted to lance corporal in 1965 and assigned to the Brahma Team I with Base II-A, in Riau, under the Supreme High Command (KOTI). The team leader was Captain Paulus Subekti The team was tasked to carry out sabotage operations against

Malaya Malaya refers to a number of historical and current political entities related to what is currently Peninsular Malaysia in Southeast Asia: Political entities * British Malaya (1826–1957), a loose collection of the British colony of the Straits ...

, now

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

, of which

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

was a part of, during the Indonesia-Malaysia Confrontation of 1963-1965. Harun was later stationed at Sambu Island,

Batam Batam is the largest city in the province of Riau Islands, Indonesia. The city administrative area covers three main islands of Batam, Rempang, and Galang (collectively called Barelang), as well as several small islands. Batam Island is the cor ...

, Riau province, Indonesia, from where the team infiltrated Singapore on 7 March 1965 with 12 kilograms of explosives.

MacDonald House Bombing and Capture

Usman and Harun were instructed to bomb an electricity power station by their superiors but finding the facility tightly guarded, they were unable to accomplish that mission and proceeded to find an easier target - an office building crowded with workers and the general public in Orchard Road. The team detonated a 12-kilogram high explosive, placed inside a blue "Malaysian Airways" traveling bag, inside the MacDonald House at 3:07 pm local time on 10 March 1965, killing three civilians, a Malay Muslim driver Muhammad Yasin Kesit and two Chinese women Elizabeth Susie Choo Kay Hoi and Juliet Goh Hwee Kuang, who were office staff of a bank. After completing their mission, both men tried to stow away out of Singapore on a cargo ship, but were told to get off after being identified as stowaways. Then they stole a boat and headed out towards Batam. However, the boat either encountered an accident or sunk, as they were later found by a traditional cargo ship at around 8.00am, floating clinging to a piece of wood. Usman and Harun were transferred to a Singapore marine police boat, on 13 March 1965, where they claimed that they were a fisherman and farmer but later confessed to the bombing of the MacDonald House.

Trial and execution

In court, both men were represented by

Francis Seow Francis Seow, born Seow Tiang Siew ( zh, s=萧添寿, p=Xiāo Tiānshòu; 11 October 1928 – 21 January 2016), was a Singaporean lawyer who was Solicitor-General of Singapore and later the President of the Law Society of Singapore. Seow started ...

, Senior Crown Counsel, who stated that they were "mercenary soldiers" and were paid S$350 (about US$280) to carry out their assignment. Usman and Harun were convicted of murder, as they had been wearing civilian clothes at the time and had targeted a civilian building, and were sentenced to death by a Singapore court on 20 October 1965. Their appeals to the Federal Court of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur on 5 October 1966, and the Privy Council in London on 29 July 1968 were rejected. The two were hanged in

Changi Prison Changi Prison Complex, often known simply as Changi Prison, is a prison in Changi in the eastern part of Singapore. History First prison Before Changi Prison was constructed, the only penal facility in Singapore was at Pearl's Hill, beside t ...

, Singapore, on 17 October 1968.

Burial and National Hero status

Their bodies were flown back to Jakarta, and buried in the

Kalibata Heroes Cemetery The National Main Heroes Cemetery in Kalibata ( id, Taman Makam Pahlawan Nasional Utama, Kalibata, colloquially known as Kalibata Heroes Cemetery ( id, Taman Makam Pahlawan Kalibata, or ''TMP Kalibata'') is a military cemetery in Kalibata, South ...

, Jakarta on 20 October 1968. Both of them were honored as

National Heroes of Indonesia National Hero of Indonesia ( id, Pahlawan Nasional Indonesia) is the highest-level title awarded in Indonesia. It is posthumously given by the Government of Indonesia for actions which are deemed to be heroic, defined as "actual deeds which can b ...

by President Suharto through Presidential Decree SK Presiden RI No.050/TK/Tahun 1968, on 17 October 1968, the same day they were hanged. They were posthumously promoted to their next higher rank, Usman to the rank of sergeant and Harun to corporal.

KRI Usman-Harun 359

In 2014, an Indonesian Navy

Bung Tomo-class corvette The ''Bung Tomo'' class is a class of three Indonesian multi role patrol corvettes or Multirole Light Frigates (MRLF) by Indonesia. They were originally built for the Royal Brunei Navy and named ''Nakhoda Ragam''-class corvettes but were ultimatel ...

was named after Harun and Usman, the KRI Usman-Harun. The name, however, caused controversy between Indonesia and Singapore, and the Singaporean government banned the ship named from berthing there or entering Singaporean waters.

Harun Tohir Airport

Bawean Airport Bawean Airport , also known as Harun Thohir Airport, is an airport serving Bawean, an island in East Java Province, Indonesia. The airport began operations in January 2016, and was officially opened by minister of transportation Ignasius Jonan ...

also named as Harun Thohir Airport, located on Bawean island, Gresik regency, East Java. It was officially opened by

minister of transportation A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government agen ...

Ignasius Jonan Ignasius Jonan (born 21 June 1963) is an Indonesian professional who was the Indonesian Minister for Energy and Mineral Resources serving under President Joko Widodo's administration. He is a former Indonesian Minister of Transportation and a fo ...

on 30 January 2016.

References

{{Authority control National Heroes of Indonesia 1947 births 1968 deaths 20th-century executions by Singapore Indonesian people executed abroad