IO, Jakarta – Anti-corruption activist, a solid identity that represents Sudirman Said. Not only that, the man who was born in Brebes, April 16, 1963 was also privileged to lead PT Pindad. Impressive track record took him to become the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources. Now he is trying his luck by running as Central Java Gubernatorial candidate.
Sudirman has been an orphan at the age of 10. His mother also had to struggle for the other five brothers, including the cost of education. Fortunately, at that time, he was an accomplished child, so he received a scholarship from the state since junior high school. Intelligent, meticulous & disciplined, these traits have been settled as his identity and embedded through his school, college, and career time.
Sudirman is an alumni of the State Accounting College (STAN) graduated in 1990, later he acquired Master’s degree in Business Administration from George Washington University in 1994.
Sudirman is also one of the Indonesian Transparency Society (MTI) and Indonesia Institute for Corporate Governance (IICG) founders. He was also appointed as the temporary rector of Paramadina University when Nurcholish Madjid (Cak Nur) was lying ill. Thus, no wonder that his image as an anti-corruption figure has been perfectly attached to him.
After experiencing anti-corruption and business sectors, Sudirman later being elected as the President Director of PT Pindad (Persero), a state-owned firm. At the beginning of his tenure, Sudirman immediately conducted various innovations to manage 3000 employees. His innovation was to collaborate with international business sectors. This he did in an effort to accelerate technology transfer as well as adopt the working discipline and culture of foreign companies.
Cooperation with international arms dealers were also settled by signing a memorandum of understanding with Rheinmetall Denel Munition (RDM) in Pretoria, South Africa in mid-September 2014. He’s also preparing a turret factory in Bandung, in cooperation with Belgium.
In addition to opening up cooperation with foreign parties for the technological wise and working culture, Sudirman also sought to combat illegal arms trade that harm the country. It was realized by making Pindad able to provide comparative data. According to him, the illegal dealers benefited from asymmetric information. Sudirman encouraged Pindad to also have specific information for a weapon. Sudirman intended that illegal traders will never be able to put an arbitrary price for a weapon.
Sudirman Said’s brilliant career in energy and oil sector, also his active involvements in anti-corruption movement, led him to be elected as Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) for the Jokowi-JK cabinet.
Sudirman said he would restore public trust to the ministry of ESDM through professional operation and transparent act. According to him, ESDM Leader shall possess strong leadership and supervisory management skills.
Although he only served two years as Minister of ESDM, many breakthroughs have been made. Call it dismantling Petral’s mafia, illegal practice disclosure of PT Freeport Indonesia’s contract extension, reveal illegal tin mines in Bangka Belitung province and tackle paper-based gas traders.
By the end of 2017, Gerindra Party, Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), and the National Mandate Party (PAN) officially supported Sudirman as the gubernatorial candidate for the Central Java Elections 2018.
Now with the deputy gubernatorial candidate of Central Java, Ida Fauziyah, both will stand together to win the upcoming elections to be held in June.
With the tagline “Jateng Mukti Tanpa Korupsi” [Prosperous Central Java Without Corruption], Sudirman Said-Ida Fauziyah has been preparing 22 programs. Of the 22 promises, Sudirman asserted that there are three priority programs that he considered to be the most basic issue in Central Java. “First of all, eradicating poverty rate from 12.23% to 6%, providing five million job opportunities, and building a clean governance,” said Sudirman.
With his track record as a businessman, and anti-corruption activists, we can expect significant changes to be occurred in Central Java. Pray for the best! (raihan)