General Dr. Abdul Haris Nasution was an Indonesian Army officer and political figure. He was Chief of Staff of the Indonesian Army 1949-1952 & 1955-1966, and from 1959 to 1966 was also Minister of Defence and Security. General Nasution was elected in 1966 to the People's Consultative Assembly, of which he became Speaker. He served in that position until 1972, at which point he was removed at the b

General Dr. Abdul Haris Nasution was an Indonesian Army officer and political figure. He was Chief of Staff of the Indonesian Army 1949-1952 & 1955-1966, and from 1959 to 1966 was also Minister of Defence and Security. General Nasution was elected in 1966 to the People's Consultative Assembly, of which he became Speaker. He served in that position until 1972, at which point he was removed at the behest of Suharto, his former subordinate, who had become "Acting President" of Indonesia in 1967 after Sukarno was stripped of power. General Nasution had already been forced into premature retirement from the Army the previous year, also of course on the orders of Suharto. For the next two decades, General Nasution was a vocal political opponent of the Suharto regime. In the 1990s, however, he did meet with then-Minister of Technology BJ Habibie, and ultimately the dictator himself, and he called for national reconciliation during the last few years of his life.