Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, commonly referred to as SBY, is an Indonesian politician and retired military officer who served as the sixth president of Indonesia from 2004 to 2014 and the second president from the military after Suharto. He founded the Democratic Party of Indonesia and served as its 4th chairman from 2014 until 2020. He also served as the 8th and 10th Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs from 2000 until 2001 and again from 2001 until 2004. He also served as the president of the Assembly and chair of the Council of the Global Green Growth Institute.
Yudhoyono won the 2004 presidential election—the first direct presidential election in Indonesia, defeating incumbent President Megawati Sukarnoputri. He was sworn into office on 20 October 2004, together with Jusuf Kalla as Vice President. He ran for re-election in 2009 with Boediono as his running mate, and won with an outright majority of the votes in the first round of balloting; he was sworn in for a second term on 20 October 2009.
During his tenure as president, Indonesia participated in many world peace missions, both at the national and international levels. Yudhoyono successfully negotiated a deal that ended the Aceh insurgency, an insurgency which lasted from 1976 to 2005. As a result, he was given the title "Father of Peace." Yudhoyono also chaired the 18th and 19th ASEAN Summits in 2011 and was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014.
Name
The name Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is of Javanese origins, with Sanskrit roots. Susilo comes from the words su-, meaning "good" and -sila, meaning "behaviour, conduct, or moral." Bambang is a traditional male name in Javanese, meaning "knight," while Yudhoyono comes from the words yuddha, meaning "battle, fight"; and yana, meaning "journey." Thus his full name roughly translates to "well behaved knight on a war mission."The name "Yudhoyono" is not an inherited surname; most Javanese do not have surnames. Rather, he chose it for his military name-tag, and it is how he is referred to abroad. His children and grandchildren go by the name "Yudhoyono," and in formal meetings and functions he is addressed as Dr. Yudhoyono. In Indonesia, he is usually referred to and widely known as "SBY."
Early life and education
Early life and family
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was born on 9 September 1949, in Tremas, a village in Arjosari, Pacitan Regency, East Java, to a lower-middle-class family. His father was a Javanese man named Raden Soekotjo, whose lineage can be traced to Hamengkubuwono II, while his mother was a Javanese woman named Siti Habibah.Education
Yudhoyono had wanted to join the army since he was a child. In school, he developed a reputation as an academic achiever, excelling in writing poems, short stories, and play-acting. Yudhoyono was also talented in music and sport, reflected when he and his friends established a volleyball club called Klub Rajawali and a band called Gaya Teruna.When he was in fifth grade, Yudhoyono visited the Indonesian Armed Forces Academy. After seeing the soldiers training there and perhaps inspired by his own father's career, Yudhoyono became determined to join the Indonesian Armed Forces and become a soldier. Yudhoyono planned to enlist after graduating from high school in 1968; however, he missed the registration period.
Young Yudhoyono then became a student under the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology in Surabaya before entering the Vocational Education Development Center in Malang, East Java. There, he was able to prepare everything for the next phase of his education at the military academy AKABRI. Yudhoyono officially entered AKABRI in 1970 after passing the test in Bandung.
Yudhoyono also studied in the United States, where he received his master's degree in Business Management from Webster University in 1991. He subsequently earned PhD in agricultural economics from the Bogor Agricultural University on 3 October 2004, two days before his presidential victory was announced. He was also awarded two honorary doctorates in 2005 in the fields, respectively, of law from his alma mater, Webster University, and in political science from Thammasat University in Thailand. On 12 June 2014, he earned professor degree from Defense University of Indonesia in National Defense Science.
Military service
Military academy
Yudhoyono spent three years at AKABRI and became the commander of the Cadet Corps Division there. He graduated from AKABRI as second lieutenant in 1973, and as the best graduate of the year, received the prestigious Adhi Makayasa medal from President Suharto.Kostrad
After graduating, Yudhoyono joined the Army Strategic Reserve and became a platoon commander in the 330th Airborne Battalion. Aside from leading his troops, Yudhoyono was also tasked with giving the battalion soldiers lessons on general knowledge and English. Yudhoyono's proficiency in English was one of the reasons why he was sent to the United States to undertake the Airborne and Ranger Courses at Fort Benning in 1975.Yudhoyono returned to Indonesia in 1976, where he became a platoon commander in the 305th Battalion and was assigned to Indonesian-occupied East Timor. Yudhoyono had several tours of duty and, like many other Indonesian officers involved in the occupation of East Timor, was accused of committing war crimes. However, Yudhoyono has never been charged with any specific act. From East Timor, Yudhoyono became a mortar platoon commander in 1977, an operations officer for an airborne brigade from 1977 to 1978, and a company commander at Kostrad from 1979 to 1981. Yudhoyono then spent 1981 and 1982 working at the Army headquarters.
While working at the Army headquarters, Yudhoyono was sent to the United States again, this time to participate in the Infantry Officer Advanced Course at Fort Benning and in training with the 82nd Airborne Division. Yudhoyono also spent time in Panama and went through the jungle warfare school. When Yudhoyono returned in 1983, he was made commander of the Infantry Trainers' School. It was not long before he was abroad again, this time to Belgium and West Germany, to undertake the Antitank weapons Course. In 1985, Yudhoyono also took a Battalion Commando Course in Malaysia.
From 1986 to 1988, Yudhoyono served with Kodam IX/Udayana, which covers Bali and the Lesser Sunda Islands. Yudhoyono was a battalion commander from 1986 to 1988 and was part of the operational staff in 1988. In 1989, Yudhoyono became a lecturer at the Army Staff College and delivered a presentation entitled "ABRI's Professionalism at the Present and in the Future". Together with Agus Wirahadikusumah, Yudhoyono published a book entitled "The Challenges of Development".
Whilst at Seskoad, Yudhoyono also took the opportunity to further his own military education. He went to the US Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. While in the United States, he took the opportunity to obtain an MA degree in business management from Webster University in 1991.
In 1992, Yudhoyono was transferred to the Army Information Department and worked as a speechwriter for General Edi Sudrajat, the Army chief of staff. In 1993, when Edi became commander of the Military of Indonesia, Yudhoyono joined Edi's personal staff. Edi did not last long as ABRI commander and Yudhoyono was then transferred back to Kostrad where he became a brigade commander. A year later, Yudhoyono was the operations assistant at Jaya Military Area Command before taking command IV/Diponegoro Military Area Command in Central Java. Yudhoyono had one more stint overseas when he became Indonesia's chief military observer of the United Nation Peacekeeping Force in Bosnia in 1995–96.
When Yudhoyono returned to Indonesia, he was made KODAM Jaya chief of staff before being appointed as KODAM II/Sriwijaya commander. In this position, Yudhoyono was responsible for military operations in southern Sumatra. He served in this position until 1997, when he was appointed chief of staff for social-political affairs. At the same time, he was also appointed chairman of the ABRI Faction in the People's Consultative Assembly General Session and participated in Suharto's election to a seventh term as president.
Chairman of the ABRI faction
In 1997, he was appointed a member of parliament and became the Chief of Territorial Staff of the Indonesian National Armed Forces, while also serving as the spokesman for the ABRI faction before the MPR General Session in March 1998.In the days leading up to Suharto's resignation in May 1998, Yudhoyono and pro-reform ABRI officers held meetings and discussions with Nurcholish Madjid, a pro-reform secular Muslim leader. In their discussions, Yudhoyono accepted that Suharto should resign, but like the ABRI officers who attended his meetings, he was reluctant to publicly withdraw their support for Suharto, let alone call for Suharto's resignation. Nevertheless, the pressure eventually became too much for Suharto, who resigned on May 21, 1998.
As Indonesia entered the reform era, ABRI's popularity, due to its association with Suharto, was at an all-time low. To reduce the political role of ABRI, Yudhoyono's chief of staff for socio-political affairs in parliament was renamed chief of staff for territorial affairs and in 1999, ABRI was renamed TNI and the Indonesian National Police was separated. At this time, Yudhoyono's popularity began to rise as he offered ideas and concepts for reforming the military and the state. He did this by combining the strong reformist sentiment at the time with the TNI's concern for security and stability.
Due to his high education and his well-planned maneuvers, Yudhoyono was known as the "thinking general.