Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

Order	6th President of Indonesia
President from:	October 20 2004
Preceded by:	Megawati Soekarnoputri
Succeeded by:	Incumbent
Date of birth:	September 9 1949
Vice President:	Jusuf Kalla Golkar
Place of birth:	Pacitan, East Java
Spouse:	Kristiani Herrawati
Occupation	Armed Forces
Political Party :	Democratic Party

General (ret.) Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (born September 9, 1949 in Pacitan, East Java, Indonesia), is an Indonesian retired military general and statesman as well as the sixth President of Indonesia, and the first to be elected directly by voters. Yudhoyono won the presidency in September 2004 in the second round of the Indonesian presidential election, in which he defeated incumbent President Megawati Sukarnoputri. He was sworn into office on 20 October 2004, together with Jusuf Kalla as Vice President.

Javanese do not have surnames in the Western sense. Thus the name Yudhoyono was not inherited either from his father or his mother. While Susilo Bambang uses Yudhoyono in naming his children, it is not a descended family surname. In Indonesia, he is referred to in some media as Susilo and is widely known in Indonesia as SBY. Abroad, he is referred to as Yudhoyono, a name that he chose for his military nametag, while in formal meetings and functions he is addressed as Dr Yudhoyono. Susilo is apparently derived from Sushil, which in Sanskrit means one with good character.

Childhood and early education

Yudhoyono was born in Pacitan, East Java, to a lower-middle class family and is the son of Raden Soekotjo, an army officer, and Siti Habibah. Since he was a child, he always wanted to be in the army. His first school was Sekolah Rakyat Gajahmada (now is SDN Baleharjo I) and since he entered the school, many people, including his parents have seen his exceptional intelligence and talent. Besides being talented academically, Yudhoyono also has talents in music and sport, reflected when he and his friends made a volleyball club called "Klub Rajawali" and a band, "Gaya Teruna". In addition to this, he often sang one of his favorite songs, "Pelangi di Matamu" at the presidential campaign.

Since he was born in a small town, he always wanted to go out to a bigger city to get a better life status. One of his gloomest memory was when his parents divorced; however, this made him to try even harder to accomplish his dream to become an army force by getting into the Indonesian Military Academy (Akabri). Before that, he was a student at the Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS) on November 10, 1969. However, Yudhoyono later chose to enter the Institute of Education in Malang, East Java. There, he was able to prepare everything for his next education at Akabri. Yudhoyono officially entered Akabri in 1970 after he passed the test which took place in Bandung, West Java.

Military education

He graduated from the Indonesian Military Academy in 1973, and received the prestigious Adhi Makayasa Medal as the best graduate of the year. He married Kristiani Herawati, the third daughter of an army commander, General Sarwo Edhi Wibowo, who played a role in defeating the alleged coup d'état attempt by the Communist Party of Indonesia in 1965.

During his time as the commander of 305th Battalion 2nd Infantry Platoon in 1976, Yudhoyono was assigned to East Timor, and had several tours of duty there since. Like many other Indonesian officers involved in the occupation of East Timor, he has been accused of war crimes, but has never been charged with any specific act. He was once seen as a protege of the former Armed Forces chief, General Wiranto, who was then also a presidential candidate, but severed his relations with Wiranto when he decided to run for President.

Yudhoyono was regularly being assigned to study in the United States, starting from and trained at the 82nd Airborne Division and US Army Rangers at Fort Bragg in 1976 to US Army's Infantry Officer Advanced Course in 1982 and 1984 to US Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth in 1991. He also gained an MA in business management from Webster University in 1991. He was Indonesia's Chief Military Observer of United Nation Peacekeeping Force in Bosnia in 1995-96. He later held territorial commands in Jakarta and in southern Sumatra. He was appointed Chief of the Armed Forces Social and Political Affairs Staff in 1997, and was known in the media as "the thinking general" due to his popular ideas and concepts in reforming military and the nation. As a media commentator has put it, "General Yudhoyono has spent more time in classrooms than in battlefields." He retired from active service on April 1, 2000, due to his appointment as a minister. He received his PhD in agricultural economics from the Bogor Institute of Agriculture on 3 October 2004, two days before his presidential victory was announced. His dissertation is entitled "The Rural and Agricultural Development as an Effort to Alleviate Poverty and Unemployment: a political economic analysis of fiscal policy".

Political background

Abdurrahman Wahid era (1999-2001)

Yudhoyono was appointed Mines and Energy Minister in the government of President Abdurrahman Wahid in 2000. He was soon promoted to the key position of Minister for Security and Political Affairs. One of his tasks was to get the army out of politics. This is in line with his reformist ideas on the future of Indonesian military, and is a view he has held since his days in an army policy center. "Since 1998, the military has decided to stay out of day-to-day politics," he said at that time. "The basic idea of military reform is to go back to the role and function of the military as a defense force and move them away from politics systematically. The trend is moving in such a way that there is no so-called 'dual function' of the military, there is no so-called social political mission in the military."

Given Wahid's physical incapacity, Yudhoyono was seen as the dominant figure in the Wahid government. In 2001 Wahid, who was facing impeachment, asked Yudhoyono to declare a state of emergency to shore up his position against the Parliament. Yudhoyono refused to accept this, and Wahid dismissed him. This gave him a new reputation for liberalism.

Megawati era (2001-2004)

In 2001, when Megawati Sukarnoputri was elected as president, Yudhoyono was one of the vice-president candidates. He lost the election in July 2001, but because of his loss, many people and groups recommended him to prepare for the 2004 presidential election and to make a political party. One year after that, he established the party, called Partai Demokrat (Democratic Party). In early August 2002, Yudhoyono held a closed meeting with Professor Subur Budisantoso, Professor Irsan Tanjung and Dr. Achmad Mubarok to discuss the presidential election.

Yudhoyono was later appointed by new President Megawati Sukarnoputri as Politics and Security Coordinator Minister. After the October 2002 Bali bombing, he oversaw the hunt for and arrest of those responsible, and gained a reputation both in Indonesia and abroad as one of the few Indonesian politicians serious about the War on Terrorism. His speech during the one year anniversary of the Bali bombing (in which many Australians were killed) was praised by the Australian media and public.. On October 1, 2005, suicide bombings were conducted on the island of Bali. The attacks bear the hallmarks of Muslim terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah (JI) -- a group with links to Al-Qaeda -- though the police investigation is ongoing. This group was also responsible for the 2002 Bali nightclub bombing. President Yudhoyono condemned the attack, promising to "hunt down the perpetrators and bring them to justice." [1] Other disasters that struck Indonesia are the eruption of Mount Merapi, outbreaks of bird flu, the 2006 Java earthquake and the mysterious disapearance of Adam Air Flight 574. In addition to this, shortly after the 2006 Tsunami struck, many media such as newspaper and news on television reported and brought up the same subject about the connection between Yudhoyono's governance and the disasters.

Family

Yudhoyono lives both in the Presidential Merdeka Palace in Jakarta and his family residence in Bogor with his wife, Ani Bambang Yudhoyono. Ani Bambang (pronounced ah-nee bumb-bung, maiden name: Kristiani Herawati) is a holder of political science degree from local Merdeka University, and was the first vice chairman of her husband's political vehicle Democratic Party.

The family's elder son, Agus Harimurti (born 1978), graduated from the reputable Taruna Nusantara High School in 1997 and Indonesian Military Academy in 2000 and is a holder of the Adhi Makayasa Medal like his father. He is an army first lieutenant, assigned to an infantry battalion in Bandung, West Java and is married to Annisa Larasati Pohan, a model and also the daughter of an ex-Bank Indonesia vice-president since the July 8th, 2005. In July 2006, Agus was graduated from Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies , Singapore in master degree of Strategic Studies. He is currently posted in Lebanon, being a member of Indonesian contingent for United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.

The family's younger son, Edhie Baskoro (born 1980) received a degree with double major, Financial Commerce and eCommerce in 2005 from the Curtin University of Technology, in Perth, Western Australia and currently following his brother's footstep in pursuing his Master Degree in the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies , Singapore.

References

• Official website
• Kompas
• VOA News
• BBC Profile

External links

• Official website