1. Anies Baswedan is the founder of Indonesia Mengajar, a program that selects, trains, and assigns university graduates to serve in a one-year teaching mission across the country.
47 Facts About Anies Baswedan
1. 2.
Anies Baswedan is the grandson of nationalist, journalist, and freedom fighter Abdurrahman Baswedan, and the cousin of Novel Baswedan.
3.
Anies Baswedan was a candidate for President of Indonesia in the 2024 election.
4.
Anies Baswedan's father was born in 1934, in Yogyakarta, in and was of Hadhrami-Javanese descent.
5.
Anies Baswedan's paternal grandfather, Abdurrahman Baswedan, was a prominent Arab-Indonesian activist and diplomat who served as a cabinet minister during the Indonesian National Revolution.
6.
Anies Baswedan had two younger brothers, Ridwan Rasyid, a reform activist, and Abdillah Rasyid Baswedan, a businessman, and a younger sister, Haifa Baswedan.
7.
Anies Baswedan later referred the accident as the lowest point of his life and experienced a major psychological impact due to the fact that he would never see his sister again.
8.
Anies Baswedan grew up in Yogyakarta, attending SMP Negeri 5 and SMA Negeri 2 Yogyakarta.
9.
Anies Baswedan returned to Indonesia and enrolled at Gadjah Mada University, spending a summer attending Summer Session of Asian Studies at Sophia University in Tokyo, and graduating with a degree in business management.
10.
Anies Baswedan succeeded Nurcholish Madjid, a prominent liberal Muslim intellectual and scholar who had served as rector since the university's founding in 1998.
11.
Anies Baswedan became the youngest rector of an Indonesian university, at 38.
12.
Anies Baswedan rose to national prominence in 2009 when he initiated the Indonesia Mengajar Foundation, a nationwide program that selects, trains, and assigns university graduates to serve in a one-year teaching mission across the country.
13.
Anies Baswedan remained in the leadership until 2013 when he resigned to pursue his political career.
14.
Politically, Anies Baswedan had been an independent during the early years of his career.
15.
Anies Baswedan moderated the first debate of 2009 presidential election.
16.
Anies Baswedan served in several capacities during Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's administration.
17.
Anies Baswedan served as the official spokesperson for the so-called "Team of Eight", which was appointed by President Yudhoyono to oversee the infamous public feud between Corruption Eradication Commission and National Police, which saw two of the commissioners were criminally charged.
18.
In 2010, alongside prominent figures like Sultan Hamengkubuwono X of Yogyakarta and former Muhammadiyah chairman, Ahmad Syafi'i Maarif, Anies Baswedan co-founded Nasdem, a mass organization.
19.
Anies Baswedan left soon after it was declared a political party led by media mogul, Surya Paloh.
20.
Anies Baswedan joined the Joko Widodo presidential campaign as an official spokesperson.
21.
Anies Baswedan helped the formation of the cabinet, working alongside Hasto Kristiyanto, Andi Widjajanto, and Akbar Faizal; all but Kristiyanto eventually became Cabinet ministers.
22.
Anies Baswedan changed the National Exam to become not a measure of graduation, but only as a mapping of the quality of regional education, established the National Examination Integrity Index to measure the honesty of students in each province, and established a Teacher Competency Test and Teacher Certification Program to improve teacher competence.
23.
Anies Baswedan was accused of deviating from the President's vision by not prioritizing the president's Smart Indonesia Card program.
24.
Anies Baswedan's victory was notably aided with the support of Islamist groups, particularly the Islamic Defenders Front.
25.
Anies Baswedan was officially inaugurated as governor on 16 October 2017, replacing interim governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat.
26.
Anies Baswedan did not continue several of his predecessor's policies, some of which included regularly recording meetings of the government and then uploading them to YouTube and the reclamation of several islands; it however allowed four islands as it already started building.
27.
Anies Baswedan initially proposed the name "Zero Percent DP", which was realized that it violated the rules of Bank Indonesia.
28.
Anies Baswedan was considered to be inconsistent about whether the houses being offered are landed houses or flats.
29.
Anies Baswedan denied that the provincial government will not build houses, but will only facilitate various housing transactions.
30.
Anies Baswedan-Sandi was considered unable to indicate in which areas the program would be implemented, considering that there was enough empty land to facilitate the program to overcome the backlog of 1.3 million houses.
31.
Anies Baswedan emphasized that the bank would be involved in helping the people enjoy "Zero DP", but was criticized because the total tens of trillions of money needed did not match the financial strength of Bank DKI which was predicted to help this program.
32.
On 7 January 2020, when the coronavirus was still an epidemic in Wuhan, China, Anies Baswedan anticipated the outbreak by informing the DKI Jakarta Provincial Health Office to all hospitals in Jakarta to conduct research and detect any symptoms of pneumonia in Wuhan.
33.
On 1 December 2020, it was confirmed that Anies Baswedan tested positive for COVID-19.
34.
Anies Baswedan was elected the governor of Jakarta, capital of Indonesia, in 2017.
35.
In 2018, then-candidates Prabowo Subianto asked Anies Baswedan to become his running mate for the 2019 presidential election but refused due to his commitment as governor until 2022.
36.
Anies Baswedan was once one of the candidates at the Democratic Party convention in 2013, but lost to Dahlan Iskan.
37.
The budget was considered too large so Anies Baswedan was reported to the Corruption Eradication Commission.
38.
Also in accordance with Government Regulation Number 19 of 2019 concerning Regional Financial Management, in article 98 paragraph ; funding of activities for several years should not exceed the end of the term of office, except for national priorities and strategic matters, as Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan was scheduled to leave office starting in 2022.
39.
When he was appointed governor on 16 October 2017, Anies Baswedan mentioned the term 'pribumi'.
40.
Anies Baswedan himself said that identity politics cannot be avoided because every candidate brought their own identities.
41.
Anies Baswedan echoed similar remarks during his campaign for governorship in 2017.
42.
Anies Baswedan's statements came back to haunt him however during the 2020 Jakarta floods when his statement is used by political rivals against him.
43.
Anies Baswedan's policies regarding building permits on reclaimed land on the north of Jakarta and demolishing slums without permits have run contrary to his campaign promises in 2017.
44.
Anies Baswedan gained more controversy due to the mistake city officials made during the budgeting process, resulting in highly inflated prices such as Aibon glue that costs around 82 billion rupiah.
45.
On 11 November 2020, Anies Baswedan met chairman of Islamic Defenders Front, Rizieq Shihab, who had returned to Indonesia and was criticized for violating health protocols which required people who have just arrived from abroad to quarantine for 14 days during the COVID-19 pandemic.
46.
On 3 October 2022, Anies Baswedan attended the declaration on the determination of the presidential candidate proposed by the NasDem Party for the 2024 Indonesian Presidential General Election.
47.
Anies Baswedan is married to Fery Farhati Ganis, a psychology graduate from Gadjah Mada University, on 11 May 1996.