Abdullah Azwar Anas is an Indonesian politician who is the current regent of Banyuwangi, East Java. Prior to becoming a regent, he had served as both an elected member of the People's Representative Council and an appointment to the People's Consultative Assembly, for one term each. Born in Banyuwangi, Anas completed his education at the University of Indonesia before joining the Consultative Assembly for 2 years. Later, he was elected in 2004 for a five-year term in the legislative council, and was elected as regent of Banyuwangi after failing to win his re-election.
Background and education
Abdullah Azwar Anas was born in Banyuwangi on 6 August 1973, his father a local kyai in the Karangdoro village, part of Banyuwangi's Tegalsari subdistrict. Being the second children of ten, his older brother died at youth, making him the eldest surviving children. He completed his primary education in madrasa, studying in one at his origin village and another in Sumenep, Madura. He later moved to state-funded regular schools, studying in two middle schools before moving to Jember for his highschool. After completing highschool, he moved to Jakarta to study literature in the University of Indonesia, earning his bachelors in 1999 before further earning a masters in social and political science by 2005. In addition, he also studied education technology at Jakarta State University, graduating with a bachelors in 1998. During his time at UI, he was the president of the central committee of the Nahdlatul Ulamastudent association. He had also become a radio broadcaster of Jember-based Prosalina when at highschool.
Career
Parliament
After graduating from university, he was appointed to the People's Consultative Assembly as a class envoy in 1997 at the age of 24, making him the youngest envoy of that year. Following the fall of Suharto, he ran but lost in the 1999 legislative election. Joining the National Awakening Party, he secured a seat from the East Java III district in the 2004 election after winning 135,667 votes - the third most in the district. However, he was not reelected in 2009, when he was reassigned by his party to the East Java VII district. According to Anas in an interview, he "was not serious" and was not present in the electoral district during the campaigning period. During his term, he was active in multiple special committees, and part of investigations teams on BLBI, a 2008 fuel price hike, the 2008 hajj season and an electoral ballot case. He was part of the eighth commission.
Regent of Banyuwangi
In 2010, Anas ran in a local election for Banyuwangi Regency with Yusuf Widyatmoko as his running mate. Supported by PKB, PDI-P, Golkar, PKS and PKNU, the pair secured 49.23 percent of the votes in a three-way contest. He was re-elected in 2015 with a landslide, winning 88.96 percent of votes with the support of PDI-P and six other parties, although his former party PKB did not support him. In 2016, Banyuwangi received an award from the World Tourism Organization, winning in the "Re-Inventing Government in Tourism" category as the first Indonesian part to receive an award from the organization. When Anas entered office in 2010, Banyuwangi was visited by 487 thousand tourists annually, with the number increasing to 4.6 million by 2017. He also established a regency-owned, 7,600-square meter tourism resort focusing on local culture. Two of the regency's programs - a peer support program for students and an electronic village budgeting program - was named by the Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform in its list of 99 most innovative programs nationally. Anas established a 55,000-hectare permanent farmland area in the regency, meant to conserve the agricultural production. Economically, Banyuwangi experienced a 62% increase in GDP per capita between 2010 and 2014, with the local government budget increasing by 150% between 2010 and 2015. The regency received an award from the central government in 2016 for the economic growth. Reports of alleged corruption under his administration were filed to the Corruption Eradication Commission in 2012 and 2017. In 2018, he was named by PDI-P as running mate to Saifullah Yusuf in the 2018 gubernatorial election. However, vulgar images rumored to be him were circulated, resulting in him withdrawing from the race.
