On 1 October 2019, Puan Maharani was elected as Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia. The current 2019-2024 parliamentary period marks her first designation as a leader of the House, as well as the House’s first ever period when a female parliamentarian is elected Speaker of the House. The faction of which she is a member, Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle Faction, won majority votes in the 2019 legislative election, securing 128 out of 575 seats in the parliament.
Puan Maharani was born in Jakarta, 6 September 1973. She earned a bachelor’s degree in communication studies from the University of Indonesia. In the 2009-2014 parliamentary period, she became a Member of the House representing Central Java V constituency, which includes Boyolali, Klaten, Sukoharjo, and Surakarta. During her parliamentary tenure, Maharani was appointed member of two different commissions, Commission I (defense, intelligence, foreign affairs and information) and Commission VI (trade, industry, investment and small and medium enterprises). Additionally, she was also a member of the Committee for Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation, the parliamentary standing committee whose main responsibility is exercising parliamentary diplomacy in support of Indonesia’s foreign policy in numerous international fora.
Prior to becoming Speaker of the House of Representatives, Puan Maharani was the Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Indonesian Culture, serving under current President Joko Widodo’s Working Cabinet for the 2014-2019 period. Similarly, through this designation, Puan Maharani also became the first woman to ever hold the office of Coordinating Minister. The Indonesian Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Indonesian Culture oversees Ministry of Religious Affairs; Ministry of Education and Culture; Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education; Ministry of Health; Ministry of Social Affairs; Ministry of Village, Development of Disadvantage Regions, and Transmigration; Ministry of Women Empowerment and Child Protection, and; Ministry of Youth and Sports.
One of the main tasks that Puan Maharani oversees as Coordinating Minister was to reduce the poverty number. Where by 2019 for the first time in Indonesia’s history, the poverty rate was reduced to below 10 percent. As well as the Gini Ratio was reduced significantly.
Being a member of the National Resilience Institute (Lemhannas), Puan Maharani is well adept to carry out her parliamentary tasks as the leader of the House of Representatives. In 2019, she was awarded the honorary alumni badge by the Governor of Lemhanas. In 2020, she received a token of honor of Bintang Mahaputera Adiprana from President Joko Widodo for her services as coordinating minister for Human Development and Cultural affairs in 2014-2019, and an award from Indonesian State Intelligence Agency.
Puan Maharani was awarded Doctor Honoris Causa (Dr. H.C.) on Cultural and Policies in Human Development by Diponegoro University, Semarang on 14 February 2020 for her services in socio-cultural sector, humanitarian development policies and human welfare in Indonesia. In October 2022, Puan Maharani also received Honorary Ph. D in Political Science at Pukyong National University Busan for providing future development direction for Indonesia, encouraging Indonesian women to participate in the global trend of gender equality, and showing a new Leadership throughout Asia.
Puan Maharani is actively involved in advancing parliamentary diplomacy. In March 2022, Puan Maharani had the opportunity to become the President of the 144th IPU Assembly that carried the theme of “Getting to Zero: Mobilizing parliaments to act on climate change.” In October 2022, she became the President of the 8th G20 Parliamentary Speaker’s Summit (P20) that discussed the theme of “Stronger parliaments for sustainable recovery.” Then in August 2023, Puan Maharani served as the President of the 44th ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) that brought the theme of “Responsive Parliaments for a Stable and Prosperous ASEAN.”