Heru Budi's President At City Hall: The Governor Is Still Mr. Anies, We Appreciate Him

Head of the Presidential Secretariat Heru Budi Hartono (Photo: BPMI Setpres/Rusman)

JAKARTA - Heru Budi Hartono was specially invited by DKI Governor Anies Baswedan to the City Hall. The head of the Presidential Secretariat (Kasetpres) who will become the Acting Governor does not want to talk much about the improvement of the capital that President Jokowi has ordered.

Jokowi memang secara khusus meminta Heru Budi Hartono untuk mengatasi masalah utama Jakarta, seperti macet dan banjir. Sebelum Pilgub DKI digelar, Jokowi minta dua persoalan utama Jakarta itu harus ada perubahan signifikan.

"Yesterday I conveyed to Pak Heru, especially the main problem in DKI Jakarta, traffic jams, flooding must have significant progress," said Jokowi.

The two problems were then asked by reporters to Heru who was beside Anies Baswedan. However, the former Ahok-era provincial government official chose a diplomatic answer.

"The governor is still Mr. Anies Baswedan, so later Monday (October 17). We must respect him, who is still governor until October 16," said Heru, Wednesday, October 12.

The media crew continued to bombard Heru with a number of questions. Including the river normalization program, whether Heru will continue or not.

"We'll continue this later. This is just lunch, the questions are already a lot," Anies replied.

"So today's priority is lunch. I respect that he is still governor, and I was invited as the president's chief of staff. So until the 16th, Mr. Rain, ask him. There was a traffic jam there was a demonstration, yes he answered," Heru referring to Anies.

"Just hasn't been sparked yet, given the burden of questions," Anies replied.

In fact, Heru Budi Hartono, who was born in Medan, December 13, 1965, is not a new person in the provincial government environment.

Heru Budi Hartono's career in the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government has been around for a long time. He was noted to have held several important positions.

At the beginning of his career, Heri became a Civil Servant (PNS). In 1993 he served as Special Staff (Staffsus) for the Mayor of North Jakarta. Two years later, in 1995 to be exact, he was promoted to Head of Sub-Division of Facilities and Infrastructure of North Jakarta in 2002.

Heru's work in North Jakarta continued until 2008. At that time he occupied the General Head's seat. His journey was up again.

In 2013, Heru had an office at City Hall because he was appointed Head of the Regional Head Bureau and Foreign Cooperation of DKI Jakarta Province.

When Jokowi served as Governor of DKI Jakarta, Heru was appointed Mayor of North Jakarta in 2014. Quoted from north.jakarta.go.id, Heru's appointment was made because he knew a broad knowledge of North Jakarta so that he was believed to be able to solve the existing problems.

Heru's journey as Mayor of North Jakarta stopped on January 2, 2015. Even so, his career continued. He was later appointed Head of the DKI Jakarta Regional Asset Financial Management Agency (BPKAD) for the period 2015 to 2017.

During his career in the DKI Provincial Government, Heru was not only close to Jokowi. He is also close to Basuki Tjahaja Purnama alias Ahok. At that time he was even lined up to accompany Ahok as a candidate for Deputy Governor of DKI Jakarta in the 2017 DKI Pilkada.