Business tycoon Garibaldi Thohir or Boy Thohir has claimed that a significant number of Indonesian giant business group owners are ready to help the Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka pair win the 2024 presidential election. These business entities include Djarum Group (Michael Bambang Hartono and Robert Budi Hartono), Sampoerna Group (Putera Sampoerna/heir of the Sampoerna family), Arini Saraswaty Subianto (daughter of the late Indonesian tycoon Benny Subianto) and Boy Thohir himself, owner of Adaro Group.
Direct support from a number of tycoons apparently shows how the oligarchy’s grip on the 2024 elections is strengthening. It is believed that other business groups also support the other pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates.
“The tycoons’ support for pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates also illustrates the changing political and economic constellation in the post-Soeharto era. As a result, efforts to secure political convenience and protection in doing business have intensified and turned more costly. As more and more business groups approach the powerholder, the transaction costs of rent-seekers increase,” Melky Nahar of the Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam) said recently.
The composition of entrepreneurs and or politicians with business backgrounds in each candidate pair of the 2024 presidential election can be seen as the magnitude of business interests in influencing the policies of election contestants and in supporting the political parties. This has an impact on changing the role of power from what should be service-oriented to profit-oriented.
This situation is even more worrying, considering that many of those business owners are affiliated with the lucrative mining business. At least 24 business owners that support Prabowo-Gibran are affiliated with the mining business, including presidential candidate Prabowo himself. Likewise, in the Anies-Muhaimin camp, there are around eight figures affiliated with the mining business. Meanwhile, in the Ganjar-Mahfud camp, there are around nine people, including Sandiaga Uno, who are affiliated with the mining business.
Those names have come both from political parties and non-political parties, and are loaded with their respective business interests.
It is therefore unnecessary to place excessive expectations on the election contestants, their supporting political parties and their election winning teams. The contestants who are defending and seizing power are not born and raised from a crisis situation, as is the empirical situation experienced by residents in the mining circle. On the contrary, they are part of the problem, enjoying multiple benefits on top of the suffering of residents in the mining area.
The connection
According to Melky, the Djarum Group of businesses, which began with clove cigarette products, has now expanded into many sectors, ranging from banking, digital goods, electronics, property, forestry, palm oil and sugar cane plantations, to the Electric vehicle business through PT Polytron Indonesia.
As with the Djarum Group, the Sampoerna Group, whose business began as a cigarette factory, has now been increasingly mushrooming, ranging from wood processing sector, telecommunication, property, banking & cooperatives, oil palm and rubber plantations, to the new renewable energy (EBT) business.
Meanwhile, Arini Saraswaty Subianto is now the controlling shareholder of her late father’s company, PT Persada Capital Investama. The company’s business lines include plantations, agriculture, construction, property, mining, and health services.
Arini also has business relationship with Boy Thohir, which began when Arini’s father, Benny Subianto, and Edwin Soeryadjaya (son of William Soeryadjaya) bought Adaro shares in 2005. Currently, Arini, through PT Persada Capital Investama, is listed as a holder, as well as serving as a commissioner.
Meanwhile, Boy Thohir’s company, Adaro Group, is a giant corporation, with many subsidiaries involved in mining, energy, nickel smelters, oil and gas, property, plantations, financial services, and electric vehicles production.
Boy Thohir also has business relations with Sandiaga Uno, one of which is through PT Saratoga Investama, a company Sandiaga founded with Edwin Soeryadjaya. Saratoga is a shareholder in PT Adaro. At PT Adaro Energy, Sandiaga is also listed as a shareholder.
At the same time, Boy Thohir also has business relations with Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan and Pandu Patria Sjahrir, Luhut’s nephew. One of their business relationships is through PT Gojek Tokopedia (GoTo). GoTo and PT TBS Energi Utama Tbk (TOBA), owned by Luhut, built a joint venture company, PT Energi Kreasi Bersama, with the brand name “Electrum”. Electrum focuses on developing an integrated electric vehicle ecosystem and industry from upstream to downstream, including electric motorbike manufacturing, battery manufacturing technology, battery swap infrastructure and charging stations, and financing.
In the 2024 elections, Boy Thohir, along with Luhut and Pandu, supported the Prabowo-Gibran pair. Sandiaga, who is the Chairman of United Development Party (PPP) Election Winning Body, is also the Chairman of the Expert Council of the Ganjar-Mahfud election winning team.
