Ahmad Boestaman

Dato Ahmad Boestaman (30 November 1920 – 19 January 1983) was a Malaysian freedom fighter, politician and was the founding president of Parti Rakyat Malaysia and Parti Marhaen Malaysia.

Ahmad Boestaman was born in Setapak, Ampang, Kuala Lumpur (then in the undivided state of Selangor) to ethnic Malay parents of Minangkabau origin who originally come from Pesisir Selatan, West Sumatra, Indonesia and was raised in Tanjung Malim, Perak.

Boestaman had been a young follower of the Kesatuan Melayu Muda (KMM) from the late 1930s in Perak, emerging after the war as the militant youth leader of Angkatan Pemuda Insaf (API) to the older and more moderate Dr Burhanuddin al-Helmy and Ishak Haji Muhammad (Pak Sako) of the Malay Nationalist Party (PKMM).

PKMM, in turn, led Pusat Tenaga Rakyat or Putera to join the All Malayan Council of Joint Action (AMCJA), which was then led by the Malayan Democratic Union (MDU). AMCJA crafted the People’s Constitution in 1947 as the basis for Malayan independence, years before the United Malays National Organisation switched its slogan from “Hidup Melayu” to “Merdeka” under Tunku Abdul Rahman’s leadership.

Boestaman was detained without trial for seven long years from early 1948, before the Emergency was declared in mid-1948, together with thousands of other Malay youths demanding independence. This pre-emptive repression by the colonial power was to ethnically colour the subsequent anticolonial resistance.

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