Lion Air CEO named PKB deputy chairman

JAKARTA. Lion Air chief executive officer Rusdi Kirana has been named deputy chairman of the National Awakening Party (PKB) in the party’s central executive board plenary meeting on Sunday.

“The PKB’s central executive board [DPP PKB] plenary meeting declared Bapak Rusdi Kirana the party’s deputy chairman. This marks a new era in which an entrepreneur has joined the PKB,” PKB chairman Muhaimin Iskandar said after the meeting at the DPP PKB headquarters in Jakarta on Sunday, as quoted by Antara news agency.

Muhaimin said Rusdi joined the PKB because he wanted to join the struggle of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia’s largest Muslim organization, and the party’s central figure, former president Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid.

“His main task as deputy chairman will be to represent me on many occasions. As the party’s chairman and also a House of Representatives member, I will be too busy to deal with various issues ahead of the 2014 elections,” said Muhaimin.

Rusdi said, as an entrepreneur born in the reformation era, he was deeply indebted to Gus Dur.

“Reformation created openness in businesses. Gus Dur as a figure made me, an individual of Chinese descent, respected and equal to other Indonesia citizens,” he said. (ebf)