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74Islam, Democracy and Human Rights in Contemporary Indonesiamanifested in the participation of various ideological andreligious factions within it. He involved five Christian ministers,i.e. M.A. Pallupessy, Tandiono Manu, Herman Johannes, F.Harjadi and J. Leimena. The prominent Javanese mystic,Wongsonegoro, also held a ministerial post in this cabinet.Even though it was created with great difficulty, the cabinetlasted quite a short time. Natsir was the only prime minister forseven months during 1950-1951. The breakup of his cabinetcoalition, due to his dispute with Soekarno about the problemof Irian Jaya, and severe opposition launched by the secondbiggest party in the parliament, PNI, which boycottedparliament assemblies in connection with their demand for thedissolution of representative bodies in the district areas, madehim return the mandate to President Soekarno. He returned tobecome a member of the parliament, the head of the Masyumifaction, and then represented Masyumi in the ConstituentAssembly of the Republic of Indonesia.Leaving his position as prime minister, Natsir had greateropportunities to pay more attention to movements in the Muslimworld. Together with A.R. Baswedan and Anwar Harjono, he madea goodwill trip to Middle Eastern countries. Pakistan, Turkey andBurma in 1952. In the following years, Natsir was active insupporting Muslim struggle in Tunisia, Algeria, Palestine, Patani,dan Moro, either through diplomatic means or by raising fundsfor the purchase of weapons. For instance, he made an initiative tohold an international conference on Palestine in 1956. With hisclose colleague, Prime Minister Boerhanuddin Harahap, Natsiralso actively supported Tunku Abdurrahman in his struggle forMalaysian independence during 1956-1957.The more Natsir was involved in the political arena in his

