Agung Laksono (born 23 March 1949) is an Indonesian politician who currently serves as a Member of the Presidential Advisory Council since 13 December 2019. A member of Golkar, he has previously served as Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare in the

Second United Indonesia Cabinet The Second United Indonesia Cabinet ( id, Kabinet Indonesia Bersatu II) was inaugurated on 22 October 2009, two days after the inauguration of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as President of Indonesia for the second term. The cabinet consists of members ...

and

Speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** I ...

of the

People's Representative Council The People's Representative Council of the Republic of Indonesia ( id, Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Republik Indonesia, DPR-RI), also known as the House of Representatives, is one of two elected chambers of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), ...

from 2004 until 2009. Born in Semarang, on 23 March 1949. He completed his primary and secondary education at SMA Negeri 4 Medan. He continued his studies at the Indonesian Christian University at the Faculty of Medicine and graduated in 1972. He started his political career in the Golkar Party by serving as Chairman of the Youth Forces of the Golkar Party from 1984 until 1989. Laksono would go on to serve as Director of PT Horizon Andalas Televisi, now known as ANTV from 1993 until 1998 and Minister of Youth and Sports in the Development Cabinet VII in the government of

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Suharto Suharto (; ; 8 June 1921 – 27 January 2008) was an Indonesian army officer and politician, who served as the second and the longest serving president of Indonesia. Widely regarded as a military dictator by international observers, Suharto ...

. In 1999, he entered the

. In 2004, he replaced

Akbar Tandjung Djandji Akbar Zahiruddin Tandjung (born 14 August 1945), more commonly referred to as Akbar Tandjung, is an Indonesian politician who served as the Speaker of the People's Representative Council from 1999 until 2004. A member of the Golkar party, ...

Speaker of the People's Representative Council The Speaker of the House of Representatives, ( id, Ketua Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat; )is the presiding officer of the House of Representatives of Indonesia. The speaker is the political and parliamentary leader of the House of Representatives and i ...

, going to serve from 2004 until 2009. He was appointed by President

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (born 9 September 1949), commonly referred to by his initials SBY, is an Indonesian politician and retired army general who served as the sixth president of Indonesia from 2004 to 2014. A member of the Democratic Party ...

as Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare from 2009 until 2014. On 7 December 2012, he was appointed to serve as Acting Minister of Youth and Sports replacing Andi Mallarangeng, following Andi's resignation over alleged corruption case of the Hambalang sports facility construction project in

Bogor Bogor ( su, , nl, Buitenzorg) is a city in the West Java province, Indonesia. Located around south of the national capital of Jakarta, Bogor is the 6th largest city in the Jakarta metropolitan area and the 14th overall nationwide.West Java West Java ( id, Jawa Barat, su, ᮏᮝ ᮊᮥᮜᮧᮔ᮪, romanized ''Jawa Kulon'') is a province of Indonesia on the western part of the island of Java, with its provincial capital in Bandung. West Java is bordered by the province of Banten ...

. Being succeeded by Roy Suryo. On 28 May 2014, he was also appointed as Acting Minister of Religious Affairs replacing Suryadharma Ali who officially resigned after alleged corruption. He was soon replaced by Lukman Hakim Saifuddin who was officially inaugurated by the President on 9 June 2014. On 13 December 2019, President

Joko Widodo Joko Widodo (; born 21 June 1961), popularly known as Jokowi, is an Indonesian politician and businessman who is the 7th and current president of Indonesia. Elected in July 2014, he was the first Indonesian president not to come from an elite ...

appointed Laksono and 8 others to become members of the Presidential Advisory Council with

Wiranto Wiranto (born 4 April 1947) is an Indonesian politician and former army general, who is serving as the chairman of the Presidential Advisory Council, since December 2019. Previously, he was the Commander of the Indonesian Armed Forces from Febru ...

as chairman.

Early life, education, and early career

Early life and education

Agung Laksono was born in Semarang, on March 23, 1949. He completed his primary and secondary education at SMA Negeri 4 Medan. He continued his studies at the Indonesian Christian University at the Faculty of Medicine and graduated in 1972.

Early career

He started his political career in the Golkar Party by serving as Chairman of the Youth Forces of the Golkar Party from 1984 until 1989.

Political career

Laksono would go on to serve as Minister of Youth and Sports in the Development Cabinet VII in the government of

. In 1999, he entered the

. In 2004, he replaced

, going to serve from 2004 until 2009. He was appointed by President

appointed Laksono and 8 others to become members of the Presidential Advisory Council with

as chairman.

Political positions

Iran nuclear program

Laksono is a supporter of

Iran's nuclear program The nuclear program of Iran is an ongoing scientific effort by Iran to research nuclear technology that can be used to make nuclear weapons. Iran has several research sites, two uranium mines, a research reactor, and uranium processing facili ...

Business ventures

Adam Air

He was a co-founder of

Adam Air Adam Air (incorporated as PT. Adam SkyConnection Airlines) was a privately owned airline based in West Jakarta, Jakarta, Indonesia. It operated scheduled domestic services to over 20 cities and international services to Penang and Singapore. Its ...

, a now defunct commercial airline, which was heavily embroiled in corruption as well as various safety violations. Adam Air was closed down after a series of accidents.

Controversy

Laksono is known for critical remarks toward

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

in response to the island republic's diplomatic calls to the Indonesian government to curb acrid trans-boundary haze that shroud large areas of

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

Peninsular Malaysia Peninsular Malaysia ( ms, Semenanjung Malaysia; Jawi: سمننجڠ مليسيا), or the States of Malaya ( ms, Negeri-negeri Tanah Melayu; Jawi: نڬري-نڬري تانه ملايو), also known as West Malaysia or the Malaysian Peninsula, ...

and Singapore annually as a result of extensive "

slash and burn Slash-and-burn agriculture is a farming method that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody plants in an area. The downed vegeta ...

" cultivation in Sumatra,

Kalimantan Kalimantan () is the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo. It constitutes 73% of the island's area. The non-Indonesian parts of Borneo are Brunei and East Malaysia. In Indonesia, "Kalimantan" refers to the whole island of Borneo. In 2019, ...

and other Indonesian territories. His remarks were viewed as without sound justification, aimed at rousing nationalistic sentiments without constructively resolving the issue at hand. In the 2013 Southeast Asian haze,

PSI Psi, PSI or Ψ may refer to: Alphabetic letters * Psi (Greek) (Ψ, ψ), the 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet * Psi (Cyrillic) (Ѱ, ѱ), letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet, adopted from Greek Arts and entertainment * "Psi" as an abbreviatio ...

levels across many parts of

Johor Johor (; ), also spelled as Johore, is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia in the south of the Malay Peninsula. Johor has land borders with the Malaysian states of Pahang to the north and Malacca and Negeri Sembilan ...

Malacca Malacca ( ms, Melaka) is a state in Malaysia located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, next to the Strait of Malacca. Its capital is Malacca City, dubbed the Historic City, which has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site si ...

Selangor Selangor (; ), also known by its Arabic language, Arabic honorific Darul Ehsan, or "Abode of Sincerity", is one of the 13 Malaysian states. It is on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia and is bordered by Perak to the north, Pahang to the east ...

and Singapore reached hazardous levels as the number of hotspots in neighbouring

Riau Riau is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the central eastern coast of Sumatra along the Strait of Malacca. The province shares land borders with North Sumatra to the northwest, West Sumatra to the west, and Jambi to the south. Accord ...

province, Sumatra, climbed to 148. Laksono lambasted Singaporeans for "behaving like a child" when the city-state stepped up pressure on the Indonesian government to take definitive action to extinguish the Sumatran forest fires and bring those responsible to justice through stricter enforcement of laws against indiscriminate burning. When a Singaporean official offered assistance to tackle the recurrent haze problem at an emergency meeting held in

Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...

, Laksono responded, "If it is only half a million, or one million dollars, we don't need that. We would rather use our own national budget." Singapore's Prime Minister

Lee Hsien Loong Lee Hsien Loong (; born 10 February 1952) is a Singaporean politician and former brigadier-general who has been serving as Prime Minister of Singapore and Secretary-General of the People's Action Party since 2004. He has been the Member of Par ...

mentioned in a press conference that "It’s not fruitful to respond to such comments. It would be in the best interests of both countries to work on the problem together rather than exchanging harsh words." Lee also repeated an offer to help Indonesia. Laksono also told reporters that "Indonesian citizens also need to be looked after" before tending to other countries' interests, even though the world's largest archipelago is observed to be the primary source of the annual regional smog. While playing the victim card, he squarely fended off the blame to foreign-owned companies and elements beyond his nation's control. He argued that it was "not what Indonesians want, it's nature", despite the fact that it was clear even in the haze that were razing large areas of forested land for commercial plantations were certainly man-made events. Laksono also reportedly remarked on more than one occasion that Indonesia's neighbours do not appreciate the fresh air that Indonesian forests bring to them, but complained about the haze when it only happens occasionally.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laksono, Agung 1949 births Living people People from Semarang Speakers of the People's Representative Council Government ministers of Indonesia Golkar politicians