Five Candidates Running in the Presidential Elections (Profile)
Jakarta (AsiaNews) Here are the candidates running in the presidential elections scheduled for 5 July:
Megawati Sukarnoputri
Born in Yogyakarta (Central Java) on 23 January 1947, Megawati is the second child and eldest daughter of Indonesia's founding president, Sukarno. Megawati entered politics in 1987 as a candidate for the Indonesian Democratic party (PDI) and served in parliament for 10 years. She was elected head of the PDI for a five-year term in 1993 but was removed in 1996, at which time she formed the Indonesia Democratic party of Struggle (PDI-P). Her party won a majority in the 1999 parliamentary elections, and she ran unsuccessfully for president the same year. She was later chosen as the Abdurrahman Wahid's vice president. Wahid encountered numerous problems as the president of a resurgent democracy, and in mid-2000 he turned the everyday affairs over to her. When the following year parliament voted to remove Wahid from office, she was chosen as president.
Megawati's PDI-P was second in the April 5 legislative elections won by Golkar, the party founded by former dictator Suharto.
Wiranto
Born in Yogyakarta, Central Java, on April 4 1947, Wiranto is a graduate of the National Military Academy (AMN) in 1968. Between 1989 and 1993, he served as President Suharto's aide-de-camp with the rank of colonel. Rapidly he rose the ranks and became first brigadier general, then general serving from 1994 to 1996 as the Chief of the Military General Staff in the Jakarta Region. Subsequently, he became Commander of the Army's Strategic Reserve, then the Army's Chief of Staff. Finally, he served as Army Chief (TNI). From 1988 till 1999 he was also Defense Minister. With Suharto's downfall, Wiranto was sacked.
In February 2003, the UN accused him of crimes against humanity for having led the brutal violence that was perpetrated against protestors in East Timor, in 1999, during the island's referendum on independence. Before and after the referendum, more than 1,400 people were killed after a bloody rampage led by the military and pro-Jakarta militias.
Wiranto has long denied any wrongdoing and repeated the claim that prosecutors who indicted him were politically motivated.
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY)
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, also known by his initials SBY, is the candidate of the Democratic Party. His support comes from his image as a man of integrity, a strong communicator and firm leader in times of crisis. Born in 1949 in Pacitan, East Java, he graduated from Indonesia's military academy in 1973. He left the army to join Abdurrahman Wahid's government in 2000 as Energy Minister and then as Security and Political Affairs Minister. Due to conflicts with President Wahid, and later with President Megawati, he lost his job. Even though SBY was a senior member of a deeply unpopular government, he has come to be seen as a victim of that government rather than part of it.
Amien Rais
He is the candidate of the Muslim-based National Mandate Party (PAN). He was born in 1944 in the royal city of Solo on the island of Java and is a businessman and a university professor. Mr Rais has spent most of his professional life teaching and researching religion and Middle East politics at the university level. He studied in Indonesia and in the United States. Between 1988 and 1993 he was Minister of Social Housing. He is the leader of PAN, a party he founded along with academics and intellectuals formerly affiliated with the now disbanded left-leaning Indonesian Socialist Party (Partai Sosialis Indonesia or PSI).
Hamzah Haz
Hamzah Haz is 61 years-old and the leader of the third largest party in parliament, the Muslim-based United Development Party (PPP). He served as Minister for Investment under President BJ Habibie, who replaced Suharto in 1999. He began his political career in 1968 in the provincial parliament in West Kalimantan. In 1971 he was elected to parliament for the Muslim Nahdlatul Ulama party (known since 1973 as PPP). Before entering politics he was a journalist in his hometown of Pontianak, on the island of Borneo, and he taught economics at Tanjungpura University. He is married with three wives and is father of 15 children.
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09/10/2021 12:36
