FAMILY BACKGROUND AND EARLY YOUTH

I was born in Lahat, South Sumatra, of Minang parents. Both my parents came from the same village, Koto Gedang in West Sumatra. I had five brothers — four older than me — and a sister. My father's older brother was Haji Agus Salim, one of the founding fathers of the Republic of Indonesia and Minister of Foreign Affairs in the early 1950s.

Although my mother's only education was in a religious school, she exerted a great influence on the upbringing of her children. As a devout Muslim, she encouraged us to find out more about the Islamic religion. Perhaps because of her own lack of schooling, she urged us to get as much education as possible, hoping that all her children would become medical doctors.

During the Dutch colonial period my father was an employee of the Department of Public Works, working on road and building construction. He designed the Immigration Office at the end of Jalan Teuku Umar in Central Jakarta, which is still standing. Although he did not have any formal academic training as an engineer, my father was good at mathematics and was able to do engineering work. He later became head of the Department's Regional Office in South Sumatra. As an employee of the Department of Public Works, my father was posted to various parts of Indonesia, including Kalimantan and Sumatra, and so we got to see many parts of our country. When he was stationed in South Sumatra, he used to take us children for walks in the forest during our holidays to look for durian, a delicious fruit, in elephant droppings. The elephants digested the thorns but not the contents of the fruit, which therefore remained clean.

Thus from my mother I acquired an interest in religion and education, and from my father a capacity for logic and a love of nature. My father used to advise us to work hard to reach the top in whatever job we held.