Mahfud MD Remembers Former Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono as a Great Scholar

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Former Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Mahfud MD remembers the figure of former Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono as a great scholar. “I once replaced Prof. Juwono at the beginning of Gus Dur’s administration (Indonesia’s 4th President Abdurrahman Wahid). Honestly, he is a great scholar who mastered defence issues from a global geopolitical perspective,” said Mahfud, who briefly served as Defence Minister after Juwono, when contacted by ANTARA from Jakarta on Saturday. Therefore, he views Juwono as the right person to serve as Defence Minister in his time. “He was the perfect person to be Defence Minister in his era. He was gentle, his speech was not explosive, but his appeal was extraordinarily strong,” he recalled. He then hoped that Juwono receives Allah SWT’s paradise. “May he attain His paradise,” he prayed. Previously, news of the passing of the Defence Minister during the tenure of Indonesia’s 4th President Abdurrahman Wahid, alias Gus Dur, and 6th President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, alias SBY, was confirmed by the Head of the Defence Information Bureau of the Ministry of Defence’s General Secretariat, Brigadier General TNI Rico Ricardo Sirait, when contacted by ANTARA from Jakarta on Saturday. Rico stated that the Professor of International Relations at the University of Indonesia passed away on Saturday (28/3) at 13:45 WIB at Pondok Indah Hospital, Jakarta. Furthermore, he said the burial of the Minister of Education and Culture during the tenure of Indonesia’s 3rd President Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie is scheduled for Sunday (29/3) at Kalibata Heroes’ Cemetery, South Jakarta. Besides serving as Defence Minister and Minister of Education and Culture, Juwono is known to have served as Minister of State for the Environment during the tenure of Indonesia’s 2nd President Soeharto.