Munafri Arifuddin (born 20 September 1975) is an Indonesian businessman who is the former CEO of the football club

PSM Makassar Persatuan Sepakbola Makassar ( 'Football Association of Makassar'; abbreviated as PSM) is an Indonesian professional football club based in Makassar, South Sulawesi that competes in Liga 1. PSM was founded in 1915 as , making it the oldest ...

and the current Director of PT Liga Indonesia Baru. Son-in-law of Bosowa Corporation founder Aksa Mahmud and relative of

Jusuf Kalla Muhammad Jusuf Kalla (; born 15 May 1942) is an Indonesian politician and businessman who served as the 10th and 12th vice president of Indonesia, the only vice president in Indonesian history to serve two non-consecutive terms in office (2004� ...

, he worked at Bosowa Group before joining the football club. In 2018, he ran for the mayoral election in

Makassar Makassar (, mak, ᨆᨀᨔᨑ, Mangkasara’, ) is the capital of the Indonesian province of South Sulawesi. It is the largest city in the region of Eastern Indonesia and the country's fifth-largest urban center after Jakarta, Surabaya, Med ...

as a single candidate after his opponent was disqualified, but lost to an empty ballot.

Background and family

Munafri was born in

Majene Majene is the administrative capital of Majene Regency and it is located in the Indonesian province of West Sulawesi. People The population at the 2020 Census was 73,883 people, 52% of which are female and 48% of which are male. The town i ...

South Sulawesi South Sulawesi ( id, Sulawesi Selatan) is a province in the southern peninsula of Sulawesi. The Selayar Islands archipelago to the south of Sulawesi is also part of the province. The capital is Makassar. The province is bordered by Central Sula ...

(today part of

West Sulawesi West Sulawesi ( id, Sulawesi Barat) is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the western side of Sulawesi island. It covers an area of 16,787.18 km2, and its capital is Mamuju. The 2010 Census recorded a population of 1,158,651, while t ...

) on 20 September 1975. His father-in law, Aksa Mahmud, is the founder of the Bosowa Corporation and one of the richest men in Indonesia, in addition to being the brother-in-law of

, the 10th and 12th

Vice President of Indonesia The vice president of the Republic of Indonesia ( id, Wakil Presiden Republik Indonesia) is second-highest officer in the executive branch of the Indonesian government, after the president, and ranks first in the presidential line of succe ...

. Munafri's wife Melinda Aksa Mahmud is the CEO of Bosowa Education; the couple have four children. Munafri studied for primary, secondary and tertiary school all in Makassar, and earns his bachelor's degree in law from

Hasanuddin University Hasanuddin University ( id, Universitas Hasanuddin) which is abbreviated as Unhas, is one of the largest autonomous universities in Indonesia. It is located in Makassar, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Unhas was established on September 10, 1956, and ...

in 1999.

Career

Munafri worked for his father-in-law for some time, including as CEO for several of the companies within the group. He also served as chairman of South Sulawesi's young entrepreneurs association between 2007 and 2010.

PSM Makassar

In 2016, shareholders of

elected Munafri as the new CEO for the club, replacing Rully Habibie. Before, Munafri had worked on clubs such as Hasanuddin FC and Perseka Bosowa. At that time, he was working at Corporate Relations in Bosowa. After becoming the last-ranked team in the league following the first four matches in his first season, Munafri fired the club manager Luciano Leandro and brought in Robert Alberts. In addition, nine foreign players were also removed. PSM finished sixth that season.

Elections

During the 2018 Indonesian local elections, Munafri registered to run as mayor of

, the capital and largest city of South Sulawesi. Being a member of

Golkar ) , foundation = , youth = AMPG (Golkar Party Young Force) , women = KPPG (Golkar Party Women's Corps) , newspaper = '' Suara Karya'' (1971–2016) , headquarters = Jakarta , ideology ...

, he was supported by 10 political parties representing 43 of the 50 seats in Makassar's city council. His opponent was incumbent mayor

Mohammad Ramdhan Pomanto Mohammad Ramdhan Pomanto, also known as Danny Pomanto, (born 30 January 1964) is an Indonesian politician who is the mayor of Makassar, the fourth largest extended metropolitan area in Indonesia. Pomanto is a graduate of the faculty of engineer ...

. However, Pomanto was disqualified by the city's

electoral commission An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...

, citing procedural flaws. This resulted in Munafri running as a single candidate, but he was still required to win over half of the votes to be elected as a

none of the above "None of the above" (NOTA), or none for short, also known as "against all" or a "scratch" vote, is a ballot option in some jurisdictions or organizations, designed to allow the voter to indicate disapproval of the candidates in a voting system. ...

option was available. In the election itself, Munafri secured 264,245 votes, while 300,795 voted for the empty ballot. While Munafri brought the case to the

Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...

, the court denied his case and reiterated the electoral commission's ruling, forcing a repeat election to be held in 2020 and an appointee to act as mayor. Munafri's loss marked the first ever victory for the

option in elections for Indonesian regional leaders. In his second run in 2020, Arifuddin again faced Pomanto alongside two other tickets and lost, winning 34.7% of votes to Pomanto's 41.3%.

Continued politics

He became the chairman of Golkar's Makassar branch in March 2021. In November 2021, he was appointed

honorary consul A consul is an official representative of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, as well as to facilitate trade and friendship between the people ...

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

in Makassar.

References

{{Reflist Living people 1975 births PSM Makassar Golkar politicians Hasanuddin University alumni People from Majene Honorary consuls