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Islam, Democracy and Human Rights in Contemporary Indonesia71Dutch in the Military Aggression II, December 1948, just beforehis arrest, Natsir still made use of his limited opportunities togive instructions to the guerrilla fighters on how to proceed withthe struggle, even though the president, vice-president and themajority of the ministers had been arrested by the Dutch troops.When Natsir held the position of Minister of Information,the communist (PKI) rebellion exploded in Madiun, East Java.Facing this situation, Natsir not only had to fight for the returnof radio stations that fell into the hands of the rebels, but alsohad to seize a counter-attack against the propaganda actionsof Front Demokrasi Rakyat (FDR - The People%u2019s DemocraticFront) led by Muso. Nevertheless, Natsir withdrew from hisposition as a result of his dispute about the release of the arrestedPresident Soekarno, Vice-President Mohammad Hatta andother ministers after the Dutch Military Aggression in December1948. Natsir did not agree with the initiative to negotiatebetween Mohammad Roem, acting on behalf of the %u2018government%u2019 of the Republic of Indonesia, the leaders of which werestill in political asylum on Bangka island, and van Roijen, actingon behalf of the Dutch government, to settle the conflict betweenthe two nations. Natsir emphasized that the only valid government in the Republic of Indonesia was Pemerintah DaruratRepublik Indonesia (PDRI - The Emergency Government ofthe Republic of Indonesia) led by Sjafruddin Prawiranegaraand based in Sumatra. Due to these arrests, the governmentled by Soekarno-Hatta was regarded as %u201cinvalid%u201d. Moreover,this government had granted a mandate to Sjafruddin toestablish an Emergency Government in Sumatra.Although Natsir did not agree with the Roem-Roijennegotiations, which caused a heated debate between him and