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72Islam, Democracy and Human Rights in Contemporary IndonesiaRoem in the 1949 Masyumi Congress in Yogyakarta (amongits decisions was that to recover the Soekarno-Hatta governmentand to bring them back to Yogyakarta), he still participated inresolving problems on the implementation of the contents of thenegotiation. He accepted Hatta%u2019s request to meet Sjafruddin tonegotiate the %u201creturn of the PDRI mandate%u201d to Soekarno-Hatta.What on earth would have happened had Sjafruddin not returnedthe mandate, because the government%u2019s authority was de facto inhis hands? The position of PDRI at that time was strong. It was thevalid Indonesian government. Its position was approved by theIndonesian people, Tentara Nasional Indonesia (TNI %u2014Indonesian National Army) and the United Nations.After the creation of Republik Indonesia Serikat (RIS - TheFederation of Indonesian Republics), Natsir was given a mandateto form the government for the Republic of Indonesia, whichwas one of the 16 states in the federation. Even though heparticipated in creating the cabinet, he turned down the positionof prime minister. His position as the head of Masyumi sinceDecember 1949 had caused him to move to Jakarta, while thecapital city of the Republic of Indonesia was Yogyakarta.However, RIS did not exist for long. A couple of weeks later,some states declared themselves dissolved and handed over theirauthority to the federal government. This dissolution wascontinued so that by mid-1950, only three states remained: TheRepublic of Indonesia, Negara Sumatra Timur (East SumatraState) and Negara Indonesia Timur (East Indonesia State). TheIndonesian political climate became heated in the midst of attemptsto resolve the problems of RIS: what was the future of this state?What was the best way to dissolve RIS and rebuild a unitary state,such as that proclaimed on Independence Day in 1945?