Gibran Meets Vice President to Discuss Office Transfer
Jakarta. Gibran Rakabuming Raka on Wednesday was briefed about the job and responsibilities of the vice presidential office by the man he is set to replace in the next six months.
His meeting with Vice President Ma’ruf Amin came hours after the General Election Commission (KPU) declared him the elected vice president alongside the future president, Prabowo Subianto.
"I had the opportunity to meet with the vice president this afternoon and I asked for his guidance and instructions," Gibran said after the meeting.
"We had a very affectionate conversation and Mr. Vice President emphasized the importance of synergy between the vice president and the president to govern the nation. Both must be mutually supportive and complementary," he added.
Gibran said he had no plan to adopt a drastic change in the main duties of the vice presidential office when he begins to work in October.
"We want continuity from the current government to the next and Mr. Vice President also advised me to prioritize the equal distribution of economic development and job opportunities across the country,” he said.
Gibran is poised to make history as Indonesia's youngest vice president, a post usually reserved for senior figures.
The eldest son of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo will be 37 years and 19 days old by the inauguration date of October 20.
He will succeed Ma’ruf, who set the record as the country’s oldest vice president at 76 years old in October 2019.
Among the 12 individuals who have held the role since the country's independence in 1945, the youngest was founding father Mohammad Hatta, who took office as the first vice president alongside President Sukarno on Aug. 18, 1945, at the age of 43.
Hatta also holds the record for the longest-serving vice president, spanning 11 years and 105 days. In contrast, Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie had the shortest time in service, with just 71 days amid nationwide protests against President Soeharto's authoritarian rule in 1998.
Megawati, the daughter of Sukarno, remains the only woman to ever serve as vice president. She became the second vice president to secure the presidency by constitutional order after President Abdurrahman Wahid was impeached in 2001. Habibie was the first vice president to assume the role of president after Soeharto resigned in 1998.
Jusuf Kalla holds the distinction of being the only vice president to have served two different presidents, during Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s presidency in 2008-09 and the Jokowi administration in 2014-19.
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