Yenny Wahid Releases Commissioner: Gus Dur's Child Efforts To Save Thepurest Garuda Indonesia

JAKARTA - A state-owned airline, Garuda Indonesia has struggled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of passengers has decreased drastically. The airline's operating budget is increasingly broken. Garuda's debt has piled up. Garuda is thought to be like a suri.

Yenny Wahid also witnessed Garuda's ups and downs during the pandemic era. The independent Commissioner of Garuda Indonesia could not bear to see the people's pride in suffering. He took the difficult option: to resign. This step was taken so that Garuda was agile in the air.

Nothing is not disturbed by the presence of the COVID-19 pandemic. The virus from Wuhan does not always carry fear. The presence of the corona virus can threaten the economic turnover of all countries around the world.

All sectors have been affected. The aviation industry has been the hardest hit. The industry is considered the culprit of the coronavirus rapidly spreading from Wuhan to the rest of the world. As a result, many countries immediately closed international flight doors.

There are also those who directly choose the regional quarantine option (lockdown). Access to a country is completely closed. As a result, the aviation industry has collapsed overtime. Passengers go down, income is not there, while the operational costs incurred are not small.

The same dilemma was also felt by the mainstay airline of the people of the archipelago, Garuda Indonesia. Garuda has been stunned since the corona virus was announced entering Indonesia in March 2020. Panic hit the Indonesian people.

Those who were previously loyal to using Garuda as a mainstay transportation immediately refused. They do not want to be infected. This condition makes Garuda passengers decrease. However, large operational funds continue to be issued by Garuda.

Garuda is even more miserable when the 2020 hajj departure is also canceled. The inclusion that has made Garuda unable to do anything. The debt has piled up. This phase was seen by recent Garuda officials as the divergent phase in the history of Garuda's journey. Garuda is like a suspended animation.

"Maybe if Garuda is called sick, no, it might have been suspended at that time. (The sector) of flights were given PSBB liquidation (Large-Scale Social Restrictions) and (flights to) overseas were closed by national borders, so that it fell 90 percent, our production is also down 70 percent," recalled Garuda Indonesia's Human Capital and Corporate Service Director, Enny Kristiani, as quoted by the CNBC page, October 8, 2024.

Garuda is not immobile. The owner of the airline had answered the challenges by doing various kinds of studies. Garuda had time to restructure the type of aircraft needed. Garuda also cut employee salaries to commissioners.

This step is considered insufficient. The big difficulty of Garuda was also made by Zannuba Ariffah Chafsoh or better known as Yenny Wahid. Independent Commissioner of Garuda Indonesia saw for himself how Garuda fell. In fact, many people predict it is the dusk of Garuda, aka from the end of Garuda's story.

Yenny did not close her hopes. He did not want to be like a commissioner in other SOEs who continued to survive and reaped profits from state-owned companies during the pandemic. They still get tantiem. An additional income if the company's performance is positive, but sometimes it also keeps out during negative performance.

The son of Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur) chose to resign from his position as independent commissioner of Garuda Indonesia on August 13, 2021. The resignation was carried out so that Garuda could save its funds.

The resignation was intended so that Garuda could immediately be agile in the air. He considered that Garuda did not need to spend more money on commissioners, especially when Garuda's financial condition was categorized as worrying in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic. He hopes that Garuda Indonesia can go through major storms.

Yenny's move to get praise from various parties. Moreover, it is not a common secret that the position of commissioner at a state-owned company is political. Those who are elected sometimes do not have a business background or otherwise. Those who actually survive. Even though they have no positive contribution.

The aviation sector is one of the hardest hit sectors by the pandemic. Our proud airline Garuda Indonesia also experienced the same thing. Revenue decreased drastically, while costs were still high.

"To help reduce the costs incurred by Garuda, I have decided to resign from my position as an independent commissioner. Hopefully this small step will bring benefits to the company, so that it can be more cost efficient, so that it can be more agile in the air," Yenni said as written on the Instagram account @Yennywahid, August 13, 2021.