Gangar Branwo moved to the capital, Jakarta, to work in the oil and gas sector (French)

An Indonesian politician who worked his way to success thanks to his leadership personality and his passion for political struggle. He became a representative in the Central Parliament at the age of 36 years. He also won the position of Governor of Central Java Province for two consecutive terms, then entered the presidential election race in 2024 with the support of the National Struggle Party and in alliance with 4 parties, and he holds the number 3 among the presidential candidates.

Birth and upbringing

Gangar Pranoo was born on October 28, 1968 on the slopes of Mount Lau in Karanganyar, Central Java, the fifth of 6 children. At first his parents named him Songwoo, a name meaning "reward after trouble and sorrow," but they changed it when he entered school to Brannwoo.

When Branwo was about to graduate from high school in 1980, his father retired from police service, and to secure another source of income, his mother opened a small grocery store at home, and Ganjar was forced to sell gasoline cans on the side of the road.

In 1999, he married his university colleague, Siti Atikoh Supriyanti, with whom he had their only son.

Acadimic qualification

Ganjar attended the prestigious Gadjah Mada University in Jokjakarta and graduated from the Faculty of Law in 1995. But he dropped out of school for two consecutive semesters because his family was unable to pay the tuition fees.

Later, while he was busy with parliamentary political work, he joined the University of Indonesia in 2009 to obtain a master’s degree in political science, and he did not obtain it until 2013 due to his partisan preoccupation.

Gangar Prannwo at one of the speech festivals as part of his campaign for the presidential elections in Indonesia (French)

Practical experiences

After graduating from university, Ganjar moved to the capital, Jakarta, to work in the oil and gas sector, where he worked as a consultant employee for human resources development.

During his term as governor of Central Java, he launched programs to improve the work of farmers, by reducing the annual interest on loans for small and medium enterprises. In 2015, the Central Anti-Corruption Commission awarded the Central Java provincial government, led by Ganjar, an award in recognition of its efforts to combat corruption and bribery.

Before and during his tenure as governor of Central Java, he was known for using the Twitter platform to communicate with the public, to receive and respond to residents' complaints and criticism of his policies and to find out the latest information from their regions.

Ganjar responded to massive public pressure to prevent the Israeli youth football team from participating in the 2023 U-20 World Cup, which was supposed to be held in Central Java, prompting FIFA to cancel Indonesia's right to host the event.

Political experience

Ganjar's interest in politics began when he joined the Indonesian Student National Movement during his university days in the early 1990s.

His pro-democracy activism against the regime of President Muhammad Suharto led him to become a strong supporter of the Indonesian Democratic Party, which was the largest opposition party to Suharto.

In 1996, the Democratic Party experienced an internal crisis due to the party leadership’s response to the pressures of the Suharto regime, which led to the defection of the daughter of the founder of Indonesia, Ahmed Sukarno, Megawati Sukarnoputri, from the party and the establishment of the National Struggle Party, and Ganjar was an activist in the new party.

An election festival in a sports stadium for candidate Ganjar Branwo (Al Jazeera)

After the collapse of the Suharto regime in 1998, and the organization of the first democratic elections in the new regime, Ganjar ran for the Struggle Party in the 2004 elections, and lost, but Megawati appointed him as a representative of Central Java in the central parliament, replacing a member of the party who was appointed Indonesia's ambassador to South Korea.

Ganjar ran in the 2009 parliamentary elections and won for Central Java until 2013, when he ran for the position of governor of his home province of Central Java. He won because of his popularity, which he built during his work in the central parliament, and he won for the second time the position of governor of the same province from 2018 to 2023.

His first term (2013-2018) was characterized by his popular programs, such as establishing free basic education, improving infrastructure, and helping farmers to reduce poverty among them, which qualified him to retain his position in the 2018 Central Java governorship elections.

By the end of his 10-year term as governor of the province, he topped various opinion polls as the most suitable person to run for president. Indeed, he is running for president in the 2024 elections.

It was widely reported at the time that Megawati favored nominating her daughter, Speaker Puan Maharani, for the position, but reconsidered the matter due to Puan's poor rating in the election. After months of speculation, Megawati chose Ganjar as the presidential candidate for the National Struggle Party, in alliance with 4 political parties.

Despite his white hair, he is always keen to appear youthful and close to the interests of this generation through his appearance and interest in music and singing. This is why he finds great popularity among the people of this generation.

Source: websites