Gibran Rakabuming Raka (born 1 October 1987) is an Indonesian politician and businessman who is currently serving as the Mayor of
Surakarta. He is the eldest child of the seventh
Indonesian president
The President of the Republic of Indonesia ( id, Presiden Republik Indonesia) is both the head of state and the head of government of the Republic of Indonesia. The president leads the executive branch of the Indonesian government and is ...
Joko Widodo.
Early life and education
Gibran was born in
Surakarta,
Central Java, on 1 October 1987, as the first child of
Joko Widodo (Jokowi) and
Iriana
Iriana (also called Iriana Jokowi, born 1 October 1963) is the First Lady of Indonesia since 20 October 2014 and the wife of the current President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo.
Early career
Iriana graduated from State High School No. 3, Solo in 1 ...
. Gibran completed his first nine years of education in Indonesia, before moving to
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, bor ...
where he studied at
Orchid Park Secondary School.
He obtained his bachelor degree from
Management Development Institute of Singapore
The Management Development Institute of Singapore (MDIS), founded in 1956, is the oldest non-profit vocational university for lifelong learning in Singapore. It offers a variety of Academic degree, degree programs such as business management, eng ...
.
Career
Business career
In 2010, Gibran founded Chilli Pari, a
catering
Catering is the business of providing food service at a remote site or a site such as a hotel, hospital, pub, aircraft, cruise ship, park, festival, filming location or film studio.
History of catering
The earliest account of major services be ...
business based in Surakarta. According to Gibran, he was inspired to set up the company after noticing the lack of a catering service for a conference centre owned by his father, but was opposed by Jokowi who intended for Gibran to continue his furniture business. The company grew and became focused on providing services for wedding parties.
Gibran then started Markobar, a
martabak chain, in 2015, and the chain had 29 locations in Indonesia by 2017. Jokowi commented in 2017 that though he did not initially approve of Gibran's business, Gibran's company ended up being valued higher than his furniture company. Gibran's reported wealth, filed in 2020 as a prerequisite to run for office, was reported at Rp 22.1 billion.
Politics
In July 2019, Gibran was named a favourite candidate for the
2020 Surakarta mayoral election, his father's position before becoming
Governor of Jakarta
The Jakarta Special Capital Region is administratively equal to a province with special status as the capital of Indonesia. Instead of a mayor, the executive head of Jakarta is a governor. The governor of Jakarta is an elected politician who, alon ...
and later
President of Indonesia
The President of the Republic of Indonesia ( id, Presiden Republik Indonesia) is both the head of state and the head of government of the Republic of Indonesia. The president leads the executive branch of the Indonesian government and i ...
, according to a survey by Slamet Riyadi University based there. In September, Gibran registered as a member of
PDI-P
The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle ( id, Partai Demokrasi Indonesia Perjuangan, PDI-P) is an Indonesian political party, and the party of the current President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo.
The PDI-P was founded and is currently led by Me ...
, the same political party as Jokowi, in order to run in the mayoral election. The party officially endorsed Gibran as their mayoral candidate in July 2020, pairing him with city council speaker Teguh Prakosa. All parties represented in the city council endorsed Gibran with the exception of the
Prosperous Justice Party
The Prosperous Justice Party ( id, Partai Keadilan Sejahtera, sometimes called the Justice and Prosperity Party), frequently abbreviated to PKS, is an IslamistAl-Hamdi, Ridho. (2017). ''Moving towards a Normalised Path: Political Islam in Contempo ...
, potentially creating an
uncontested election
An uncontested election is an election in which the number of candidates is the same as or fewer than the number of places available for election, so that all candidates are guaranteed to be elected. An uncontested single-winner election is one w ...
. Ultimately, the candidacy of Bagyo Wahyono, a tailor by profession, was approved on 6 September 2020. Gibran's candidacy was also challenged by the activist Halim HD, who seeks votes for the
blank box instead of the well-connected candidates. In the election itself, Gibran with a comfortable margin after winning 86.53 percent of votes (225,451 votes). Gibran and his running mate Teguh Prakosa had spent nearly 30 times more to campaign for the election compared to Bagyo.
Personal life
Gibran married Selvi Ananda on 11 June 2015, and the couple had their first child, Jan Ethes Srinarendra, on 10 March 2016.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gibran Rakabuming Raka
1987 births
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle politicians
Children of national leaders
Javanese people
21st-century Indonesian businesspeople
Living people
Joko Widodo
People from Surakarta
Mayors of Surakarta