Gibran Rakabuming Raka Resigns as Indonesia’s Vice President
The son of former President Joko Widodo stepped down as lawmakers moved to impeach him. His father says the family will keep backing President Prabowo Subianto.
JAKARTA, Nov 12 – Gibran Rakabuming Raka resigned as Indonesia’s vice president on Thursday after court rulings found that his overseas school credentials did not meet the requirements for the post. It is the highest-profile resignation in the country since President Suharto stepped down in 1998.
The 39-year-old is the son of former President Joko Widodo, known as Jokowi.
He handed his letter to the leaders of the People’s Consultative Assembly, the country’s highest legislative body, at the parliament building in Jakarta.
He met them for about 20 minutes and asked them to process it. He did not speak to reporters as he left.
Ahmad Muzani, the assembly speaker, read out the letter. In it, Gibran said he decided of his own free will: “Through my own volition,” Gibran wrote, adding that it was for the interests of the government and the nation.
Law Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra said the five-paragraph letter cited personal reasons and what it called growing public feeling.
Gibran also sent a resignation letter to President Prabowo Subianto, Muzani said. He had offered to resign on Tuesday in a meeting with Prabowo, saying he wanted to avoid a long political fight.
A cabinet minister said at the time that Prabowo urged him to defend himself.
Minutes after Gibran arrived at parliament, his father spoke to reporters outside his home in Solo, in central Java. Jokowi said he had reminded his son that political posts do not last forever.
“There will always be political dynamics in public office; that’s normal,” Jokowi said.
He also said his family would keep supporting Prabowo’s government, especially its programs that serve the wider public.
That pledge could ease signs of strain between the two men, analysts said. Jokowi defeated Prabowo, a powerful former general, in two presidential elections. But when Jokowi became ineligible to run again because of term limits, he threw his support behind Prabowo.
Analysts had warned that a split between them could further destabilize the government.
The dispute over Gibran’s schooling came to a head last month. The Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court both ruled that the documents he submitted for his overseas education did not meet the legal requirements for vice presidential candidates.
They said election officials should not have accepted them.
Under Indonesian law, a candidate must have completed senior high school or an equivalent level of education. Because Gibran studied overseas, he was required to show that his studies were equivalent to an Indonesian high school diploma.
Then, on Wednesday, 120 lawmakers from eight parties submitted a petition to the House leadership. It initiated a parliamentary process that could have led to his impeachment.
His path to the vice presidency had long been controversial. Before the 2024 election, Gibran was too young to run, as the minimum age was 40. But in October 2023, the Constitutional Court created an exception for people who had served or been elected as regional leaders.
Critics viewed the ruling as a conflict of interest, and Jokowi was accused of interfering to change the rules so that his son could run.
Indonesia will not hold a new election to fill the post. Under the constitution, the office will remain vacant until the assembly selects a new vice president from two candidates nominated by the president. That process must be completed within 60 days.
The assembly will first hold a session to declare the post vacant, the law minister said. It will then write to Prabowo to ask for his two candidates.
Muzani said party leaders would meet right away to begin the process.
The resignation comes at a difficult time for Prabowo, whose government faces scandals over flagship programs and investor concerns about its management of Southeast Asia’s largest economy.
On Thursday, the rupiah fell about 0.6% to a new record low of 18,255 against the dollar.
Separately, police said on Thursday that they had enough early evidence to seek treason charges against four people accused of wiretapping Prabowo, other politicians, activists and journalists. Former police chief Listyo Sigit Prabowo, widely seen as loyal to Jokowi, is among the senior officers under scrutiny.
The Associated Press reported that the inquiry into Gibran’s schooling did not appear to be linked to the wiretapping case.
