Yusriansyah Syarkawi

Yusriansyah Syarkawi (26 July 1950 – 16 February 2021) was an Indonesian politician who served as Regent of Paser from 1999 to 2004, and again from 2016 until his death.

Yusriansyah was born on 26 July 1950 in Tanah Grogot, Paser, East Kalimantan, as the son of Syarkawi and Siti Khadijah.

After attending elementary and junior high school in Paser, Yusriansyah attended high school in Balikpapan.

After graduating from the high school in 1969, he then enrolled at the Home Government Academy, an academy for civil servants, and finished in 1974.

Yusriansyah was posted to East Balikpapan in 1975, where he became the Head of the Rural Development Section in the East Kalimantan Subdistrict.

Yusriansyah was promoted in 1976 and became the head of the entire subdistrict.

Although his term as subdistrict head was supposed to end in early 1979, his term was extended for a few months.

Yusriansyah ended his tenure at East Kalimantan in 1979, and was transferred to Long Ikis subdistrict as the head until 1981.

From then on, Yusriansyah studied at the Institute for Governance in Jakarta, and graduated in 1983 with a degree in governance (S.IP.).

Yusriansyah returned to East Kalimantan and was assigned several posts at the Pasir Regency government, where he became the head of public relations and protocol of the Pasir Regency (1983–1984), head of regional income service (1985–1998), and as the head of region's Development Planning Agency from 1998.

Yusriansyah, who at that time was head of Pasir's Development Planning Agency, ran as a candidate for the regent in 1999.

Although the candidacy of him and two other candidates were approved by the Minister of Internal Affairs, several officials demanded the reselection of candidates, stating that the candidates were chosen not by the current serving members of the council, but by the outgoing council.

The council then held a vote to decide whether it would reselect its candidates, which resulted in a majority of members refusing a reselection.

Another vote was then held to elect the regent and was won by Yusriansyah.

He became the regent from December 1999 until December 2004.

He was replaced by Adi Buhari Muslim, the chairman of East Kalimantan's Development Planning Agency, as acting regent.

During his tenure, a conflict between Nusantara Plantation and the villages surrounding the plantation occurred.

The villagers began plotting the plantation's land, causing at least 200 employees from the plantations to leave their job.

Yusriansyah Syarkawi's government acted as a mediator between the two parties.

Yusriansyah Syarkawi initially stated that he had no plans to take over the plantation.

However, as the conflict became prolonged, Yusriansyah Syarkawi's government began attempts to buy the plantation.

He stated that he would buy the plantation if no agreement between the conflicting parties could be reached.

In light of the regional autonomy implemented by the government, the Ministry of Education implemented the education autonomy in 2001.

Matters relating to education were handed over from the provincial government to the regency government.

Following the enactment of the education autonomy, Yusriansyah remarked that his regency allocated 13-15% of its annual budget for education and that the allocation was less than the expected allocation percentage of 25%.

Yusriansyah also stated that Paser lacked elementary school teachers.

To cope with the problem, Yusriansyah increased the number of non-permanent teachers in the region.

Yusriansyah oversaw the separation of the North Penajam Paser Regency from the Paser Regency on 11 March 2002.

After his term as regent expired, Yusriansyah was nominated as the Regent of Paser in the 2005 Paser regent election held on 29 June 2005.

Yusriansyah was supported by Golkar, Crescent Star Party, Democratic Nationhood Party, and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, and he picked Mardikansyah as his running mate.

Yusriansyah obtained 29,063 votes in the election and lost to Ridwan Suwidi, who obtained 34,300 votes.

Yusriansyah's successor, Adi Bukhari, handed over his office to Ridwan on 29 August 2005.

Yusriansyah attempted to run again in the 2010 Paser regent election following his loss in 2005.

Yusriansyah picked Azhar Baharuddin as his running mate and received endorsement from the United Development Party, Democratic Renewal Party, National Awakening Party, and the People's Conscience Party.

Ballot numbers for Yusriansyah were assigned several days after he was designated as eligible, and Yusriansyah became candidate number four in the election.

One of Yusriansyah's opponents in the election was Ridwan Suwidi, the incumbent regent.

Elections were held on 10 June 2010.

Although initial results from the General Elections Commission indicated a victory for Ridwan Suwidi, Yusriansyah's electoral team claimed that he was winning the election instead.

The official results were announced 15 June and Ridwan Suwidi was announced as the winner of the election with 40,882 votes or 40% of the total votes.

Yusriansyah lost the election with 32,814 votes or 32% of the total votes.