Ramlan Hutahaean (7 September 195529 June 2021) was an Indonesian

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

minister. He was the 9th General Secretary of the

Batak Christian Protestant Church The Huria Kristen Batak Protestan (''HKBP''), which translates in English as ''Batak Christian Protestant Church'', is a Lutheran church that is oriented towards Protestant among the Batak people, generally the Toba Batak in Indonesia. With a ...

(HKBP) between 2008 and 2012.

Early life

Ramlan was born on 7 September 1955 in Sipahutar, a village located in

North Tapanuli North Tapanuli Regency (''Tapanuli Utara'' - in Indonesian, "utara" means "north") is a landlocked regency in North Sumatra province, Sumatra, Indonesia. Its capital is Tarutung. The regency covers an area of 3,793.71 square kilometres and it had ...

in Sumatra, Indonesia.

Evangelical career

Arrest and torture

During the New Order regime of Indonesian President

Suharto Suharto (; ; 8 June 1921 – 27 January 2008) was an Indonesian army officer and politician, who served as the second and the longest serving president of Indonesia. Widely regarded as a military dictator by international observers, Suharto ...

the military had a strong political role. In the mid-1990s the Indonesian government backed P. W. T. Simanjuntak to be the ''Ephorus'' (Chairman) of the Batak Christian Protestant Church, against a majority of church members who supported previous chairman S. A. E. Nababan. The conflict between the government wing, and opposition supporters, involved the military. Ramlan supported the latter and became the head of the church's personnel bureau in S. A. E. Nababan's administration. His support of S. A. E. Nababan resulted in his home in North Tapanuli being raided by around 150 soldiers on 12 May 1994. He was then arrested, tortured, and was held at a secret location along with two HKBP ministers and the son of an HKBP minister. Several days later, the police stated that Ramlan was arrested on charges of holding an illegal meeting, but refused to give any clarifications on his torture.

General Secretary of HKBP

Ramlan was elected as the General Secretary of HKBP at its 59th General Synod (''Sinode Godang'') in September 2008. He defeated five other candidates in the election. After his four-year term as secretary general ended, Ramlan decided to run as a candidate for the church's ''Ephorus'' in the next general synod in September 2012. He lost the election to W. T. P. Simarmata. He then attempted to run for a second term as secretary general, but he lost again, this time to Mori Sihombing. During his tenure as General Secretary, a conflict relating to the establishment of a HKBP church in Ciketing, a subdistrict in

Bekasi Bekasi (, su, ) is a city in West Java, Indonesia, located on the eastern border of Jakarta.the city of planet Bekasi is his nickname.It serves as a commuter city within the Jakarta metropolitan area. According to the 2020 Census by Statistics ...

, occurred. A HKBP pastor from the nearby region was beaten by locals, while a local elder named Hasian Sihombing was stabbed by an unknown group. Ramlan and the ''Ephorus'' demanded the President of Indonesia at that time,

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (born 9 September 1949), commonly referred to by his initials SBY, is an Indonesian politician and retired army general who served as the sixth president of Indonesia from 2004 to 2014. A member of the Democratic Party ...

, resolve the problem. Several days later, Ramlan went to the Ciketing HKBP church—which at that time has been sealed by locals—and led a mass in there.

Death

Ramlan died on 29 June 2021 in

Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hutahaen, Ramlan Indonesian religious leaders 1955 births 2021 deaths People from North Tapanuli Regency People of Batak descent Indonesian Lutherans