Nurdin Basirun (born 7 July 1957) is an Indonesian politician who had served as the governor of

Riau Islands The Riau Islands ( id, Kepulauan Riau) is a province of Indonesia. It comprises a total of 1,796 islands scattered between Sumatra, Malay Peninsula, and Borneo including the Riau Archipelago. Situated on one of the world's busiest shipping la ...

since May 2016 until July 2019. Before serving as governor, he was briefly vice governor, and had served ten years as the regent of Karimun. In 2019, he was arrested by the

Corruption Eradication Commission Corruption Eradication Commission ( id, Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi), abbreviated as KPK, is an Indonesian government agency established to prevent and fight corruption in the country. Firli Bahuri, an active police general, is the current cha ...

for receiving bribes.

Biography

Basirun was born in the subdistrict of Moro,

Karimun Regency The Karimun Regency is located in the Riau Islands Province, Indonesia. Besides the central island of Great Karimun, the regency also includes the islands of Kundur and over 240 smaller islands. The district covers a land area of 1,524 km2 ...

, on 7 July 1957. Basirun began his career in shipping, and eventually became the owner of a shipping company before entering politics. Prior to his provincial executive posts, Basirun was deputy regent of

between 2001 and 2005 under Muhammad Sani. He later became the regent between 2005 and 2015. During his time as regent, he underwent higher education, and graduated with a bachelors of education from Lancang Kuning University in 2002, and later he obtained a masters in communication from Dr. Soetomo University (2005) and a doctorate from the 17 August 1945 University (2010). He was initially part of

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

, being the deputy chairman for its Riau Islands provincial branch in 2014, but he later moved to

Nasdem ) , political_position = Centre to centre-left , national = Onward Indonesia Coalition , international = Progressive AllianceNetwork of Social Democracy in Asia (SOCDEM) , website www.nasdem.id, BallNo = 5 , ...

, becoming the chairman of the party's provincial office. In 2015, Basirun ran as Sani's running mate for the province's gubernatorial seat, and the pair won the election after securing 53.2% of the votes (347,515 votes). On 12 February 2016, the pair was sworn into office. Around two months later, Sani fell ill and died on 8 April, leaving the gubernatorial post vacant until Basirun was elevated into the post on 25 May. As governor, Basirun attempted to reinitiate the

Batam-Bintan Bridge The Batam-Bintan Bridge ( id, Jembatan Batam-Bintan), also known as the Babin Bridge (from Batam and Bintan) is a proposed series of cable-stayed bridges crossing the Riau Strait between the islands of Batam and Bintan in the Riau Islands of Indon ...

construction project - which had been mothballed since 2005 - and invited investors from

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 ...

and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

to participate in the project. He has also come into conflict with the rest of the province's administration - with a sudden

job rotation Job rotation is a technique used by some employers to rotate their employees' assigned jobs throughout their employment. Employers practice this technique for a number of reasons. It was designed to promote flexibility of employees and to keep em ...

in November 2016 causing the provincial legislative body to exercise its first interpellation since the province's formation in 2002. In another occasion, Batam's mayor

Muhammad Rudi Muhammad Rudi (born 20 October 1963) is the mayor of Batam, the largest city in the Riau Islands province after being elected in 2015 where he won 185,845 votes (60.40%) in the 2-candidate race. Previously, he had served as deputy mayor for 5 year ...

noted that he was not informed of Basirun's decision to hike the electricity prices in

Batam Batam is the largest city in the province of Riau Islands, Indonesia. The city administrative area covers three main islands of Batam, Rempang, and Galang (collectively called Barelang), as well as several small islands. Batam Island is the cor ...

despite the two being affiliated with Nasdem. He was arrested by the

on 10 July 2019. He was accused of having received bribes amounting

SGD SGD is the ISO 4217 code of the Singapore dollar, the currency of Singapore. SGD or sgd can also mean: * Saccharomyces Genome Database, a yeast database * Sargodha, a Pakistani city * Secure global desktop, software by Tarantella, subsequently bou ...

5,000 and Rp 45 million to issue a permit for a reclamation project in a protected zone.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Basirun, Nurdin 1957 births Governors of the Riau Islands People from the Riau Islands Nasdem Party politicians Golkar politicians Vice Governors of Indonesian provinces Mayors and regents of places in the Riau Islands Living people Regents of places in Indonesia Vice regents of places in Indonesia