Mardiyanto reelected as Central Java governor
Mardiyanto reelected as Central Java governor
Suherdjoko, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Incumbent Central Java governor Mardiyanto was reelected for the
2003-2008 period on Thursday, winning 62 of 99 votes in the local
legislature.
Mardiyanto and his running mate Ali Mufiz grabbed the governor
and vice governor posts respectively, defeating other
contestants, including the dismissed Central Java chief of the
Indonesian Democratic Party for Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) Mardijo
and his partner Hisyam Alie. They only garnered 13 votes.
Slamet Kirbiantoro and Hisyam Alie got 22 votes, while
Hadipranoto and Djoko Wahyudi got one vote.
Mardiyanto was initially nominated by the National Awakening
Party (PKB) faction with 16 councillors in a coalition with the
Indonesian Military (TNI)/National Police faction.
Mardiyanto also had the decisive support from none other than
PDI Perjuangan chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri, who ordered her
party members in Central Java to support him, and not the
candidate from her own party.
PDI Perjuangan has 44 seats in the legislature, and the
province is known as a PDI Perjuangan stronghold.
President Megawati reportedly claimed she was in support of
Mardiyanto due to his experience in leading the province in the
previous five years and apparently hoping he can help her party
win the 2004 elections.
She even made a Soeharto-like move by dismissing her party's
Central Java chief Mardijo, simply for contesting the
gubernatorial election without her consent.
Mardiyanto, meanwhile, expressed his satisfaction over his
victory.
"There are a lot of difficult jobs we must face. I must handle
those jobs with Pak Ali Mufiz. In the first 100 days, we will
figure out a vision and mission," he said.
Mardijo and other contestants graciously congratulated
Mardiyanto on his victory.
Born in Surakarta on Nov. 21, 1946, Mardiyanto became a
military officer after finishing the Magelang Indonesian Military
Academy (Akmil) in 1970.
Like other military officers, Mardiyanto has worked in several
locations throughout the country.
He has assumed several important military posts such as the
Akmil Vice Governor in 1995, the Military District Command
(Kodam) Diponegoro chief in 1997 and the assistant to the TNI
Social, Political chief in 1998.
He has one wife, Effi Murbayati and two sons Indra and Bayu.
Meanwhile, Ali, who was born in Jepara, Central Java, July 21,
1944, was formerly a lecturer at the University of Diponegoro in
Semarang, Central Java, and an activist with the largest Muslim
organization Nadhlatul Ulama.
After graduating from high school in Jepara in 1963, he went
to the University of Diponegoro, and majored in Public
Administration.
He graduated from the university in 1971 and became a
lecturer.
In 1984, Ali went to the U.S. to do postgraduate work at the
University of South California (USC) in the U.S. where he
finished his degree in 1987.
He has also been the chief of Central Java's chapter of the
Indonesian Council of Ulemas (MUI) from 1990 to the present.