Bidar Alam, a small village that played a big role in the history of PDRI

Did anybody come from South Solok here? If so, you might have known about a historical
village behind Bukit Barisan called Bidar Alam. In fact, not many of those knows about this
village. Do you know why it is not that famous? The reason is because the location is hard to
access by cars or motorcycles so it took a long time to get through the village. This situation
makes Bidar Alam was considered as the savest place to run PDRI at that time.

Before going to the main story, I would like to recount what had happened before.
“ We, the President of Republic Indonesia, announced that on December 19, 1948, at 6 am the
Dutch had begun their attack on the capital city, Yogjakarta. If the government is unable to
carry out its obligations anymore, we authorize Syafrudin Prawiranegara to form an emergency
governmet (PDRI) in Sumatra.” Eventhough Indonesia has declared its independence on
August, 17, 1945, the Dutch didn’t want to lose any of their colony. So they send troops to take
over Yogyakarta and almost all regions in Indonesia, this is called the first Dutch military
agression. Because of the chaos the Dutch created, in December 22, PDRI was officially formed
in Bukittinggi after a big conference. This emergency government was led by Syafrudin
Prawiranegara.

In order to run their mission as an emergency government, of course they need to find a place
to be a headquarter. After holding a discussion, they all finally agreed to place the headquarter
in Bidar Alam. Do you know why they choose this place? The main reason was Bidar Alam was
the savest remote place with hard acccess to get through at that time, so that the Dutch
wouldn’t find them.

Since it would be an extremely long trip, Syafrudin arranged a plan. “We will move in two
groups. One group take the land route, while the other take the water route. Moh Dahlan,
please take over the land route. Meanwhile, I will take over the water route.” Command
Syafruddin as the head of PDRI. Both of the route were dangerous. The land route group
should face the forest wilderness, while the water route group should sail in the swift-flowing
river. “Take a rest for tonight because we will start our big mission tomorrow.”

In the next day, both groups left the headquarter and started to follow their own route.
Everything ran smoothly until the night came. The waves were getting faster and the wind
blew crazier! It seemed like they were working together to toss the boat this way and that
way. “It was too dangerous! We shall sail the boat immediately to the nearest island.” Said
Syafrudin. So they decided to change the plan and walk all the way through cities and villages.

Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, finally both groups arrived safely