Tri Rismaharini (born 20 November 1961) is an Indonesian politician who is the current Minister of Social Affairs. Popularly known as Risma, she is both the first directly-elected and first female to be the Mayor of

Surabaya Surabaya ( jv, ꦱꦸꦫꦧꦪ or jv, ꦯꦹꦫꦨꦪ; ; ) is the capital city of the Indonesian province of East Java and the second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. Located on the northeastern border of Java island, on the M ...

. She is one of the leaders in the central executive board of the

Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle 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 ...

Education

She earned a bachelor's degree in Architecture and a master's degree in Urban Development Management from

Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology ( id, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember; '10th of November Institute of Technology'; abbreviated as ITS) is an Indonesian public technological university located in Surabaya, East Java, with a strong ...

, Surabaya. She was awarded a doctoral degree from

in 2015.

Career

Public service

Risma began her career as a low-ranking public servant in

. Before being elected as mayor, she served as a civil servant in the

City Government for more than 20 years, rose up to head of Surabaya's Program Controlling Division, and later head of Surabaya Landscape and Cleanliness Department. During Risma's tenure, Surabaya enlarged open spaces such as cemeteries so that they serve as water absorption areas. The city has also added green lanes along main roads and created city forests. Risma's policies have been credited with reducing the severity and duration of floods, prompting calls for flood-prone

Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital city, capital and list of Indonesian cities by population, largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coa ...

to emulate her policies. Risma gained popularity for her surprise visits to local public service offices, where she criticized officials for their poor and inefficient performances, accusing them of "sinning" against the public.

Social Affairs Minister

On 23 December 2020, Rismaharini was appointed as Social Minister under 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 elit ...

's cabinet, replacing Juliari Batubara who had been arrested for bribery. One of her first programs, announced on the day of her appointment, was to reform the aid distribution system by revamping the performance of data management and the social aid delivery system due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia The COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). It was confirmed to have spread to Indonesia on 2 March 2020, afte ...

, from physical cash handouts to a more transparent bank transfers.

Awards

During her tenure, Surabaya has won a number of awards including the ASEAN Environmentally Sustainable City Award 2012 and the Adipura Kencana, the highest environmental awards in Indonesia. Mayor Risma was named as one of the 10 most inspiring women 2013 by Forbes Indonesia. She was also recently named one of the world’s 50 greatest leaders by Fortune magazine and was one of the top mayors listed last year by the City Mayors Foundation, an urban research institute. March 2016, she was awarded ''Ideal Mother Award 2016'', at Cairo University, given by Islamic Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO).

£4,000 vanity award

In April 2014, Risma and an entourage of six Surabaya officials flew to London to accept the so-called United Europe Award from the

Europe Business Assembly The Europe Business Assembly (EBA) is an Oxford-based organisation selling what ''The Times'' has called "fake awards", or what are more widely known as "vanity awards". The awards, which include "The International Socrates Award" and "The Queen ...

, an organization which sells vanity awards. On 20 April 2014, Risma led a procession of eight open-air jeeps through Surabaya to show off the award, which officials described as a Socrates Award. Risma denied purchasing the award, explaining her side had merely paid a £4,000 participation fee.

Controversies

Risma's policy of closing down

brothel A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub p ...

s has been criticized by aid and health care workers as ineffective, and doing nothing to eliminate the sex trade. Her critics add that making prostitution illegal forces many sex workers to work in conditions that are more dangerous and unregulated, and therefore more at risk from diseases. Her reforms have wide support in Indonesia, though. In January 2020, Risma filed a police report against Zikria Dzatil, a woman in Bogor, West Java, for comparing her to a female frog in a Facebook post. “If I am a frog, that means my mother is a frog,” Risma said. Police responded by arresting Zikara on 31 January for allegedly violating the Electronic Information and Transactions Law. The following month, Risma withdrew the police report after Zikara apologized.

Electoral history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rismaharini, Tri 1961 births Living people People from Kediri (city) Javanese people Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle politicians Social affairs ministers of Indonesia Mayors of Surabaya Women mayors of places in Indonesia