The Career Of The Minister Of Communication And Information Budi Arie Setiadi, Who Was Officially Inaugurated Today

Budi Arie Setiadi has been officially inaugurated as Minister of Communication and Information (Menkominfo) (photo: Instagram @budiariesetiadi)

JAKARTA - Budi Arie Setiadi has been officially appointed as Minister of Communication and Information today. Before taking office, Budi himself had a quite long and varied career.

He is known as the General Chair of Projo, a largest volunteer organization supporting the President of the Republic of Indonesia Joko Widodo (Jokowi) in the 2014 and 2019 elections.

Budi himself admitted that he was not common with his duties in the field of Communication and Information, "This is not a new place or vehicle for me, especially communication and information. The challenges are very heavy, but we must be optimistic that he will move quickly," said Budi during his inauguration, Monday, July 17, at the Ministry of Communication and Information office, Central Jakarta.

"There is no need to be pessimistic, that there is a problem, let it be the problem with the problem, all those who have no problem solving the problem," he added.

The man who was born on April 20, 1969, was once a press editor for Suma University of Indonesia (UI) students. He is also active in campus organization activities.

Budi served as Chair of the UI Student Study Forum in 1992-1993, Chairman of the Student Representative Agency (BPM) FISIP UI in 1994-1995 and the Presidium of the UI Student Senate in the same year.

After graduating from UI, Budi's activities in the organizational world did not stop. He also founded the Jakarta Bachelors Movement (GSJ) and the Indonesian Professional Society (MPI) in 1998-2000.

He also founded the Daily Move during the 1998 reform era. Before establishing the Moving Daily, Budi also became the initial part of the establishment of the Kontan media and became a Kontan journalist from 1996 to 2001 as well as Indonesian Media reporters Sunday in 1994-1996.

The man who is familiarly called Muni among activists has also tasted the professional world in the telecommunications sector. He is the director of various companies.

Many of them are engaged in telecommunications. Along with that, he honed his political skills by becoming the Head of Balitbang PDIP DKI Jakarta and Deputy Chairperson of the DPD PDIP DKI Jakarta in 2005-2010.

"I think we have a lot of challenges about digital infrastructure, about how platforms that are troubling the community, we have to clean up, thirdly, how the digital ecosystem can be the responsibility of Kominfo, the fourth is the message of the President specifically how to build a narrative of the 2024 peace election," said Budi.

In 2006, Budi continued his postgraduate study at UI Development Management. After becoming one of the top PDI-P officials in DKI Jakarta, Budi then founded the Projo or Pro-Jokowi volunteer organization in August 2013.

Projo is touted as one of the volunteer organizations that succeeded in leading Jokowi to victory in the 2014 presidential election. Projo also showed his loyalty to Jokowi during the 2019 presidential election, as quoted by Antara News.

With the success of being the general chairman of the volunteer organization, Budi's name is increasingly being taken into account in the national political arena. In October 2019, Jokowi appointed Budi as Deputy Minister of Villages, Development of Disadvantaged Regions, and Transmigration (Wamen Desa and PDTT).