Puan Maharani

Puan Maharani Nakshatra Kusyala Devi (born 6 September 1973) is an Indonesian politician from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), who is serving as the current speaker of the House of Representatives (DPR), Indonesia's lower house since 2019.

She is the first female and the third-youngest person to take the office permanently, being aged 46, when she took the oath of office.

Puan Maharani Nakshatra Kusyala Devi was born on 6 September 1973.

Her mother is former president and current PDI-P leader Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of Indonesia's first president Sukarno.

She graduated from high school in 1991, and entered the University of Indonesia in 1991 to study literature and in 1992 pursued a bachelor's degree in mass communication, earning it in 1997.

After the fall of Suharto in 1998, Puan became involved in politics as her mother was one of the main players in national politics.

During the three-year Megawati presidency, she would often accompany her mother on domestic and foreign visits, in addition to conducting social events by herself.

In 2008, Megawati introduced Puan, then head of PDI-P's public and women's empowerment wing, as her successor during campaigning for the 2008 East Java gubernatorial elections in Ngawi.

Her father, Taufiq Kiemas, was a politician who served as the speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly from 2009 until his death in 2013.

A member of the PDI-P, she was first elected to the People's Representative Council in 2009.

Her father is Taufiq Kiemas, a politician who served as the speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly from 2009 until his death in 2013.

Up until elementary school, Puan lived a relatively normal and uneventful life, despite being the granddaughter of the first president Sukarno.

This was until she was in junior high school, as her mother Megawati, became active again in Indonesian politics during the New Order.

Following that, Maharani ran in the 2009 elections in Central Java's election district 5 (covering Surakarta, Sukoharjo, Klaten and Boyolali) and won 242,504 votes - the second highest of all parliamentary candidates in the nation.

During her first term, she acted as head of the PDI-P faction, replacing Tjahjo Kumolo.

She was assigned to the DPR's 6th commission, covering investment and SMEs.

She served as head of the party's faction from 2012 until her selection as minister in 2014 following the ascent of President Joko Widodo from PDI-P.

She was one of eight women selected as ministers.

During this period, she argued against a fuel price hike policy in 2013.

She previously served as the Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Cultural Affairs between 2014 and 2019, becoming the first female and the youngest coordinating minister, being only 41 when she took office.

Puan is the youngest child and the only daughter of former president and current PDI-P leader Megawati Sukarnoputri, and a granddaughter of Indonesia's first president Sukarno.

Later, she was briefly put up as a possible PDI-P presidential candidate for the 2014 elections and as a possible vice presidential candidate to Joko Widodo (popularly known as Jokowi).

In the legislative elections, she won 326,927 votes, again scoring the second-most votes nationwide.

Following Jokowi's election victory over Prabowo Subianto in the concurrent presidential election, she was appointed a cabinet minister amid criticism over her inexperience and her mother's political influence.

The ministry had received budget funds of Rp149 billion in 2015, resulting in criticism when the revolusimental website went "down" two days after its launch.

Officials claimed the site had been hacked and had cost "only" Rp200 million.

Reports noted that some of the site's script code had been taken from barackobama.com, a site operated by supporters of Barack Obama.

The original site was also built on a theme from open-source website platform WordPress and hosted on a shared server.

The website was later redeveloped, but was criticized for being "heavy on budget, light on content".

Puan defended the website, saying: “l really want everyone to participate in this programme by joining the activities as well as giving us their opinions or criticisms.”

Her replacement in parliament, Alfia Reziani, was only sworn in by 2016.

She claimed success during her tenure, pointing at the rising HDI in addition to lower poverty and Gini ratio statistics.

She was the only coordinating minister to survive two cabinet reshuffles in Jokowi's first term, prompting the media to describe her as "untouchable".

On 24 August 2016, as Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture, Puan launched a website, revolusimental.go.id, to promote President Joko Widodo's call for a "mental revolution" in Indonesia.

On 22 March 2018, former House of Representatives speaker Setya Novanto, while on trial for corruption, testified that Puan received a bribe of $500,000 from businessman Made Oka Masagung in connection with an electronic identity card program when she was a legislator, serving as chairwoman of the PDIP in the House of Representatives.

Puan admitted to knowing Made Oka but denied discussing the e-ID case with him.

Made Oka, who was jailed for 10 years for his role in the e-ID bribery scandal, denied giving any money to legislators, saying he could not remember a meeting with them.

Indonesia Corruption Watch called on the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to check the veracity of the allegation made against Puan.

KPK chairman Agus Rahardjo said Setya's testimony was "only talk" and Puan would not be questioned if no evidence had been found.

She was re-elected to the People's Representative Council in the 2019 election.