General Andika Perkasa to Command the Indonesian Military

TheIndonesia.co - President Joko Widodo has nominated the current Army Chief of Staff, General Andika Perkasa, as the new Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander to the House of Representatives to replace Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto who will retire this month. General Perkasa is the son-in-law of former Indonesia State Intelligence Agency Chief, General AM Hendropriyono.

President Widodo nominates Perkasa who was born in Bandung, West Java, on 21 December 1964, through a letter submitted by Minister of State Secretary Pratikno to the House of Representatives. House of Representative Speaker Puan Maharani confirms the nomination.

“The House has received the President’s letter for Commander of TNI nomination,” Puan said, 3 October 2021. The House will respond to the letter immediately.

General Perkasa graduated from Military Academy in 1987. He started his career in the infantry, joining the army's elite force, Army Special Forces Command. In 2003, Perkasa went to the United States to study at the National War College and Norwich University. He also studied for a master’s degree at Harvard University while taking a doctorate at George Washington University. Returning to Indonesia in 2011, he was promoted as Colonel to be the Commander of the Kodam Jaya Regional Training Regimen.

In 2013, he was promoted to Brigadier General when being appointed as the Head of the Army Public Relations office. Several days after President Joko Widodo's inauguration in 2014, he was appointed as the commander of the Presidential Security Force and promoted to Major General. Early 2018, after serving as the commander of Tanjungpura Regional Command since 2016, he was promoted to Lieutenant General to be the Head of the Indonesian Army Doctrine, Education, and Training Development Command. In July 2018, he was appointed as the Commander of the Army Strategic Command (Kostrad). On 22nd November 2018, he was promoted to a four-star-general before being sworn in as the Chief of Staff of the Indonesian Army.