Asa Bafaqih

Asa Bafaqih (14 December 191811 December 1978) was an Indonesian journalist, diplomat, and politician. He was best known for being editor-in-chief of the Antara news agency and the Pemandangan newspaper. He also served as ambassador of Indonesia to Sri Lanka and Algeria.

Early life Bafaqih was born in Tanah Abang, Batavia (now Jakarta), on 14 December 1918. He studied at the Jamiat Kheir Islamic private institution.

Career Initially working as a religious studies teacher, Bafaqih began his journalistic career by translating Arabic articles to Malay for the daily newspaper Pemandangan. He also became a freelance writer for both Pemandangan and the weekly magazine Pandji. After Pemandangan was censured by the Dutch authorities, Bafaqih moved to the Japanese Dōmei news agency to work as an editor. He was still an editor by the time of the proclamation of Indonesian independence. Several hours before the event itself, fellow journalist Adam Malik contacted Bafaqih with a text of the proclamation, and Bafaqih passed it over for a colleague to transmit across the archipelago, without being discovered by Japanese censors. After Indonesian independence, the Dōmei branch became Antara, and Bafaqih worked there as editor-in-chief. Eventually, Attorney General Soeprapto dropped the charges, citing a lack of clarity on "state secrets".

Bafaqih later became a member of the People's Representative Council of Mutual Assistance (DPR-GR) representing both journalists and the Nahdlatul Ulama. He was appointed as Indonesian ambassador to Sri Lanka, where he worked for four years between 1960 and 1964. He then was assigned as ambassador to Algeria for a year afterwards. He also published a book based on that visit, titled RRT dari Luar dan Dalam (People's Republic of China from Outside and Inside).

He died in Surakarta, Central Java, on 11 December 1978 during a journalistic assignment.