King Juli Antoni Becomes Deputy Minister Of ATR, Head Of PSI Giring Thankful To Jokowi Even Though Not Present At The Palace

Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) politician who currently serves as Deputy Minister of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/Deputy Head of the National Land Agency (ATR/BPN) Raja Juli Antoni/ANTARA/Desca Lidya Natalia)

JAKARTA - Chairman of the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) Giring Ganesha expressed his gratitude to President Joko Widodo for appointing King Juli Antoni as Deputy Minister of Agrarian and Spatial Planning/BPN accompanying former TNI Commander Hadi Tjahjanto.

Raja Juli, Secretary of the PSI DPP Advisory Council who is familiarly called Toni, replaced PSI cadre Surya Tjandra.

"Thank you Pak Jokowi for trusting one of PSI's best cadres to enter the cabinet," said Giring in a written statement, Wednesday, June 15.

Even though he did not appear to be attending the State Palace like the 7 general chairmen of other government-supporting political parties, Giring Ganesha continued to support Toni. Giring said his party was ready to help make the performance of the Ministry of ATR/BPN under the leadership of Hadi and Toni successful.

"We will help Pak Hadi and Bro Toni as hard as we can to continue agrarian reform and other related agendas, which were previously carried out by Bro Surya Tjandra. Thank you, Bro Surya, for your hard work so far," said Giring.

Giring emphasized that land is a fundamental production factor so that PSI will help realize the ideals of the nation as enshrined in Article 33 of the 1945 Constitution so that land can be used to maximize the welfare of the Indonesian people.

Giring also believes that Toni is one of PSI's best cadres who is intelligent and has integrity. According to him, Toni will help Hadi a lot in carrying out President Jokowi's duties.

"He used to be a student activist, a PhD from Australia. We believe he will be able to make a big contribution to the position of deputy minister to help Minister Hadi Tjahjanto," said Giring.

For information, Raja Juli Antoni was born in Pekanbaru, Riau, July 13, 1977. He earned a master's degree in The Department of Peace Studies, The University of Bradford, England (2004).

Then, Toni received a Doctorate degree at the School of Political Science and International Studies, The University of Queensland, Australia (2010).

At PSI, Toni became Secretary General of the DPP in 2014-2020. After that, he was given the mandate to become the Secretary of the Board of Trustees.

Prior to entering politics, he was a researcher, including being the Executive Director of the Maarif Institute (2005-2009).