Anies Rasyid Baswedan, Ph.D, an Indonesia academician, was born on May 7th, 1969 in Kuningan. Now, he is The Minister of Education and Culture of Republic Indonesia. He is also the Former Rector of Paramadina University in Jakarta, Indonesia. The position was appointed by Joko Widodo, The President of Republic Indonesia. He is the initiator and the chairman of Indonesia Mengajar.
When he was as a student, he actively involved in Indonesian student’s movements during the authoritarian regime of Soeharto. He was known as one of a few Indonesian student leaders from early 1990 winning a Fulbright scholarship to study abroad for his graduate. He is now a prominent political analyst and highly respected of young leader in Indonesia. He is also known as one of the Indonesia’s youngest university president.
Baswedan received a Ph.D in Political Science from Northern Illinois University, a Master of Public Policy degree at School of Public Policy, College Park, the University of Maryland, and his Business Management degree in Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. He has received several outstanding awards such as the 2010 Yasuhiro Nakasone Awards, Bina Antar Budaya Award (AFS Indonesia), the Fulbright Scholarship, the 2004 Gerald Maryanov Fellow from Northern Illinois University, Indonesian Cultural Foundation Scholarship in New York, and William P. Cole III Fellowship from the University of Maryland. He was also awarded the JAL Scholarship to attend at the Summer Session of Asian Studies at Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan when he was a student at Gadjah Mada University.
Career
In June 2009, Baswedan was elected as the moderator for the first presidential debate that ever conducted in Indonesia. That was a historic event, broadcasted live in all national TV networks. No less than 100 million people watched that. He was also known as member of the Team Eight, appointed by President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, to investigate the criminal charges against two commissioners from the Corruption Eradication Commission that brought by Indonesian Police. Wide media had coverage the case for weeks. More than a million facebook users marched to support the two commissioners. Baswedan was elected as the spokesperson by the team. His systematic, eloquent and diplomatic remarks during the press conferences for that crisis time had helped to clarify facts and reduced political tension.
Baswedan is not affiliated with any political parties or groups. He accepted the invitation to participate as one of the 45 declaratory in a new organization launching called National Democrat. The 45 declaratory come from various professional backgrounds. Baswedan’s stance is identically with Syafii Ma’arif (Ex-chairman of Muhammadiyah), Rizal Sukma (Executive Director of the Strategic and International Studies Centre (Indonesia)), also Eep Saefullah Fatah (Executive Director of PollMark). They were welcome for the invitation to participate as declaratory but all of them declined to be active in the group. Baswedan continued to non-party although many political observers had already named him as a potential candidate for national leadership. While, Indonesia political groups wanted Baswedan to join their parties. In December 2011, Baswedan was appointed by the president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, to select leadership candidates of National Election Committee.
Achievement
In May 2008, US magazine Foreign Policy named Baswedan as one of the top 100 public intellectuals in the world, and the World Economic Forum included him in the Young Global Leaders 2009. In April 2010, the Japanese magazine Foresight, a Tokyo-based international affairs magazine, published “20 Persons 20 Years”. That was reported the lists of 20 persons (from all continents) to be watched in the next 20 years, Baswedan was included in that list along with names such as; Vladimir Putin (Russia), David Miliband (UK), Hugo Chávez (Venezuela), and Rahul Gandhi (India). He is the only person from Southeast Asia included in this list. In July 2010, the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre in Jordan listed him in the 500 Most Influential Muslims in the world. In November 2010, PASIAD of Turkey granted Baswedan as the PASIAN Education Award for his education advance roles in rural areas of Indonesia.