Minister of Home Affairs Inaugurates Governor and Deputy Governor of Aceh Earlier

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian, representing the 8th President of Indonesia Prabowo Subianto, inaugurated Aceh Governor Muzakir Manaf and Deputy Governor Fadhlullah for the 2025-2030 period in the Plenary Session of the Aceh House of Representatives in Banda Aceh, Wednesday (12/2/2025). This inauguration is earlier than the simultaneous inauguration of 505 elected regional heads from the 2024 Regional Head Elections in Jakarta. This is in accordance with the mandate of Law Number 11 of 2006 concerning Aceh Governance.

President Prabowo Subianto was unable to attend the inauguration of the Governor and Deputy Governor of Aceh in person due to receiving a visit from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The early inauguration in Aceh is in accordance with Article 69 letter c of Law Number 11 of 2006 concerning the Government of Aceh, which stipulates that the inauguration of the Governor and Deputy Governor is carried out by the Minister of Home Affairs on behalf of the President in front of the Aceh Sharia Court in a Plenary Session of the Aceh Regional House of Representatives.

The inauguration ceremony was also attended by several figures, including the 10th and 12th Vice President Jusuf Kalla, Wali Nanggroe Aceh Teuku Malik Mahmud Al-Haythtar, Deputy Chairman of the Aceh Sharia Court Basuni, Minister of Trade Agus Suparmanto, Minister of Creative Economy Teuku Riefky Harsya, Head of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) Muhammad Herindra, as well as the Acting Governor of Aceh for the 2024-2025 period Safrizal ZA.

Also present were a number of former officials from the previous cabinet, including Sudirman Said, Sofyan Djalil, and Hamid Awaluddin.

Tito explained that the inauguration on February 12, 2025, was chosen to ensure that the Governor and Deputy Governor of Aceh who are inaugurated have enough time to inaugurate the regents and mayors in the Aceh Province area. Additionally, the inauguration is part of the preparations before attending the simultaneous inauguration of regional heads at the State Palace on February 20, as well as preparations before participating in the regional heads' retreat at the Military Academy (Akmil), Magelang, Central Java.

"He (the President) is very magnanimous and fully understands those regulations, and also respects the request from the Aceh DPR and the elected governor. Therefore, he conveyed to proceed with the inauguration on February 12," explained Tito.

According to him, President Prabowo also understands the importance of the inauguration and has conveyed his apologies for not being able to attend in person in Aceh. In fact, the President very much wanted to witness the inauguration directly.

Despite this, President Prabowo still extended his congratulations to the newly inaugurated governor and deputy governor of Aceh as a form of his attention and affection towards Aceh.

"Actually, he (the President) really wanted to be here in person to witness it. But today, he is receiving an official visit from the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan," said Tito.

Meanwhile, the PDI Perjuangan (PDI-P) DPP provided briefing to all regional heads elected in 2024 at the Party School in Lenteng Agung, South Jakarta, Wednesday (12/2/2025). The briefing was carried out in a hybrid manner and was attended directly by a number of central party administrators, including PDI-P Secretary General Hasto Kristiyanto, PDI-P DPP Chairmen Djarot Saiful Hidayat and Deddy Yevri Sitorus, and PDI-P Deputy Secretary General Yoseph Aryo Adhi Dharmo.

When opening the event, Hasto said he had reported to the General Chairperson of the PDI-P DPP Megawati Soekarnoputri regarding the briefing activity. Currently, Megawati is performing the Umrah pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia with her family.

He added that the provision provided by the PDI-P DPP was intended so that regional heads who are PDI-P cadres have provisions before later receiving direction and coaching directly from President Prabowo Subianto. Thus, regional heads from PDI-P have provisions of knowledge related to geopolitical conditions and the concept of the Republic of Indonesia.

"This is a provision so that later before receiving direction and training from President Prabowo Subianto and all levels of the state government, all elected regional heads (from PDIP) will have provisions in a concept that the form of our state is the Republic of Indonesia, the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia, not a federal state," explained Hasto.

Hasto also advised all regional heads who are directly elected by the people to put development in a system that is in line with the Republic of Indonesia which is led by a president. Although the president is supported by a political party or a coalition of other political parties, by being directly elected he can gain legitimacy to serve the next five years.

"The President and his vice president have a vision and mission, which is stated in the medium-term development plan, which means that it binds all of us, including regional heads and citizens, to fully submit to the law," said Hasto.

In addition, Hasto said that this briefing was an effort to integrate thoughts and to show how the PDI-P's vision and mission were derived based on the mandate of Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution with the principle of realizing Indonesia Trisakti.

Hasto emphasized that when formulating policies, regional heads elected in 2024 from PDI-P are required to invite experts and specialists. This is part of the implementation of the intellectual tradition initiated by the Proclaimer Ir Soekarno or Bung Karno.

He hopes that the policies implemented by the PDI-P regional heads must be based on in-depth research and studies, referring to theoretical guidelines found from developing social phenomena as Bung Karno did in the past.

"So our regional heads are required to create a policy based on research. So, the theory is a guide, because the theory was found from the social phenomenon that was growing at that time, which was strengthened by Soekarno that the world experienced extraordinary changes after the French revolution," said Hasto.

Furthermore, Hasto reminded PDI-P regional heads not to forget history and to continue to explore big ideas from various schools of thought such as materialism, nationalism, Islamism, and socialism that were once brought by Soekarno. Thus, the resulting policies can be more relevant to the objective conditions of the people and in-depth in analyzing various challenges.

"If our regional head, yes, invite the team, invite the team from universities, invite from BRIN, to see how the dialectic of regional progress. Don't forget history, don't leave history. This is the first dialectic, Soekarno saw the history of the archipelago, world history, books as a window to the world and the thoughts of world figures that underlie a construction of the problems faced by the Indonesian people," said Hasto.

Meanwhile, Djarot said that the first wave of training was attended by 142 regional heads from PDI-P. They are regional heads who were first elected in the 2024 Pilkada. The 142 regional heads from PDI-P consist of 71 internal cadres, 45 elements of the state civil apparatus and bureaucracy, 23 businessmen, 1 TNI/Polri, and 2 academics.

"From here the party then prepares its vision and mission. So, all elected regional heads from PDI-P are committed to working together to realize the goal of an Independent Indonesia," said Djarot.

The former Mayor of Blitar added that in PDI-P, regional head candidates do not prepare their own vision and mission. This is because there is a potential for the vision and mission that is prepared by themselves to tend to be prepared only by consultants who emphasize populism and electoralism.

He did not forget to congratulate the regional heads who were elected in the 2024 Pilkada. Because, he realized that the 2024 Pilkada was going to be tough due to various pressures.

"In the 2024 Pilkada, we won at the provincial level 22 percent in 2024. We won an extraordinary 32 percent while for the second regional head of our district/city from 2017 to 2020 we won 37 percent. In 2024 we won 47 percent so an increase of 10 percent," said Djarot.

The former Governor of Jakarta also reminded all elected regional heads to truly unite with the people. The position of regional head is only a tool as a means to realize the ideals of independence, eradicate poverty, stunting, overcome the gap between the rich and the poor, and issue policies for the poor.

"Convince us that we are truly united with the people, fighting for the aspirations and security of the people, God willing, the people will be with us," said Djarot.

This regional head briefing program will be filled by speakers from high-achieving regional heads from PDIP including former Banyuwangi Regent Abdullah Azwar Anas, former Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo, former Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahja Purnama or Ahok and former Semarang Mayor Hendrar Prihadi.