Martinus Abednego was a politician from the Indonesian Christian Party who served as the first Director-General for Guidance of the Christian Community, which was a directorate-general under the Ministry of Religious Affairs.
15 Facts About Martinus Abednego
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Martinus Abednego was a member of the Central Indonesian National Committee and the 3rd General Secretary of the Indonesian Christian Party.
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Martinus Abednego was born in Citeureup, Bogor, Dutch East Indies, on March 10,1910.
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Martinus Abednego was born as the first child of a Christian primary school teacher named Djoni Abednego, and his wife named Satinem Kaiin.
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Martinus Abednego was enrolled at the Christelijke Hollands Chinese School, a school for Chinese children.
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Martinus Abednego's mother went against his plan, stating that a lawyer is the crookest occupation in the world.
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Martinus Abednego's mother encouraged him to become a teacher, and enrolled him at the Teacher's School in Solo.
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Martinus Abednego was one of the founding members of the Indonesian Christian Party.
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Martinus Abednego was appointed as the general secretary of the party in the 2nd congress of the party, replacing Albert Mangaratua Tambunan who had been appointed as the member of the Working Committee of the Central Indonesian National Committee.
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Martinus Abednego was appointed as one of the employees of the Syuumubu, focusing mainly on Christian affairs.
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Martinus Abednego's appointment was due to his support to the formation of the ministry, even though most Christians in Indonesia didn't approve the formation of the ministry, mainly due to the fear of Islamic dominance in Indonesia.
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Martinus Abednego managed to propose the revocation of the Article 177 of the Indische Staatsregeling, which stated that all Christian missionaries could only perform ministries of service after permitted by the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, and that the missionaries' activity was limited to a certain region.
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Martinus Abednego argued that such rule violates the freedom of movement and religion in Indonesia.
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Martinus Abednego married Sri Muryan on 28 December 1937 in Klaten.
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Martinus Abednego managed to recover several days later, and managed to wrote a memoir about his life.