Roy Suryo

Roy Suryo Notodiprojo (born 18 July 1968 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia), commonly known as Roy Suryo, was a Minister of Youth and Sports Affairs of Indonesia for the final 21 months of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Second United Indonesia Cabinet.

A self-proclaimed expert in telecommunications and multimedia, Roy gained celebrity status for analyzing and commenting on the authenticity of evidence in political and celebrity scandals, such as leaked phone conversations and sex tapes.

He hosted e-Lifestyle on Metro TV for five years.

Before his cabinet role, Roy was a member of parliament representing Yogyakarta Special Region.

Roy studied at the Faculty of Communication at Gadjah Mada University (UGM) from 1991 to 2001.

He taught at the Department of Photography at the Indonesian Institute of the Arts over 1994–2004.

He has also been a guest lecturer at the UGM Communication D-3 Program, teaching photography for several semesters but is not a permanent lecturer at UGM.

Roy first came to national prominence in March 1999, when a tape recording of a telephone conversation between President BJ Habibie and Attorney General Andi Ghalib was leaked to the press.

The conversation revealed the judiciary's lack of independence and the government's insincerity toward calls to bring former president Suharto to justice.

After Ghalib denied it was his voice on the tape, Roy - then a relatively unknown figure at Gadjah Mada University - said he had used a digital "spectrum analyzer" to ascertain the conversation was authentic.

Roy explained he had compared the voice on the tape to one of Habibie's televised speeches, and then to a tape of a comedian impersonating Habibie.

The match between the leaked tape and Habibie's speech was much closer than the comedian's impersonation.

After announcing his findings, Roy was summoned by the State Intelligence Agency (BIA).

Although nervous before the meeting, Roy later said his interrogators had driven him around, treated him to lunch and they had become good friends.

Roy then began appearing widely on radio and television, positioning himself as an expert on evidence in numerous ensuing scandals involving politicians and celebrities.

He insisted his actions were motivated only by the desire to seek the truth through "pure science".

In August 1999, Roy also analyzed a leaked conversation between key figures in the Bank Bali scandal and declared it to be genuine.

Later, he analyzed and declared genuine a photo purporting to show President Abdurrahman Wahid with his alleged mistress, Aryanti Sitepu.

The propensity of certain Indonesian media outlets to reproduce Roy's statements verbatim without checking their veracity prompted some Indonesian netizens in 2004 to establish a website (now defunct) called roysuryowatch, which analyzed and criticized his comments quoted in the mass media.

He was criticized by some bloggers after commenting that the defacing of government websites was carried out by bloggers and hackers.

The feud escalated after he said bloggers were con artists.

It transpired the alternative version had been aired on Indonesian television in 2004 and uploaded to YouTube in December 2006.

In 2005, Roy joined Yudhoyono's Democratic Party.

In August 2007, Roy announced he had obtained a recording of an original, longer version of Indonesia's national anthem, Indonesia Raya, from Leiden University's library archives.

Leiden University Library later denied supplying Roy with the alternative version.

In 2009, he was elected to the national parliament, representing Yogyakarta electoral district.

He resigned from the legislature in January 2013 after being appointed to replace disgraced Youth and Sports Affairs Minister Andi Mallarangeng.

In early 2013, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono appointed Roy Suryo as Minister of Youth and Sports Affairs to replace Andi Mallarangeng, who resigned after being named a suspect in a corruption case.

Upon becoming minister, he inherited the challenge of resolving a conflict between rival national football associations: the Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) and the Indonesia Football Saviour Commission (KPSI).

The rival camps were led by prominent tycoons Nirwan Bakrie and Arifin Panigoro.

In April 2014, Roy ran for re-election to parliament but lost to fellow Democratic Party member Ambar Tjahyono from Yogyakarta.

He accused Ambar of vote-rigging and Ambar was dismissed from the party.

In September 2014, Roy was criticized by Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) for taking an official trip with his wife to Europe to promote the Indonesian martial art of pencak silat, as his term as minister neared an end.

ICW described the trip as a waste and questioned why Roy's wife was among his 10-member entourage visiting the Czech Republic, Spain and Bulgaria.

After completing his ministerial term, Roy was accused of failing to return state assets until action was taken by the State Audit Board (BPK) in 2016.

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) had also called for the swift return of the state assets.

In August 2018, in his capacity as deputy chairman of the Democratic Party, Roy declared the party's intention to support former general Prabowo Subianto in the 2019 presidential election.

In September 2018, Roy temporarily resigned from his position as deputy chairman of the Democratic Party, saying he wanted to focus on returning assets to the Youth and Sports Affairs Ministry and did not want the party connected to the case.

In April 2019, Roy stood for re-election to parliament, but he and the Democratic Party failed to win enough votes to have a representative for Yogyakarta enter the national parliament for the 2019–2024 period.

Roy attributed the result to "Almighty God" and to "rampant money politics" practiced by other parties.