Rizal Ramli (born December 10, 1953 in Padang, Indonesia, West Sumatra) is an Indonesian politician. He is a prominent Indonesian economist graduated from Boston University with a Ph.D degree in economics in 1990. Ramli served as Coordinating Minister for Economics Affairs (August 2000–July 2001) and Minister of Finance (July 2001) under President Abdurrahman Wahid administration. He was the chairman of Komite Bangkit Indonesia (Indonesia Awakening Committee) and an independent candidate for president in the July 2009 elections.[1]
Dr Ramli was sent to prison by the New Order regime for his protesting against Suharto's re-election in 1978. Upon his return from the United States, he founded ECONIT Advisory Group, an independent economic think-tank, with some of his colleagues. In the beginning of President Abdurahman Wahid's administration, Dr Ramli was appointed as the Chairman of Bulog.
When he was still active as the managing director of ECONIT, Dr Rizal Ramli and his team have been very critical on the government policies, particularly that ignored public and national interests, such as: national car policy, urea-tablet fertilizer, Freeport mining, etc.
In January 2009, Indonesian police charged Ramli with inciting street riots in May 2008 protesting government fuel price increases.
Role as Chair of Rice Logistics Bureau (Bulog)
Dr Rizal Ramli's career in government started when he was appointed as the Chairman of Bulog (Indonesia's large rice procurement agency) in Gus Dur's Administration in March 2000. He was the chairman of Bulog for less than a year but he was regarded by some as making notable breakthroughs during the period. He introduced steps to improve Bulog's performance. He made efforts to reform Bulog into a more transparent and accountable institution such as transforming off-budget accounts of Bulog to on-budget ones. During Dr Ramli's period with Bulog there were reports of significant cost savings and efficiencies in the operation of the agency. As result, Bulog had a surplus on its account. Dr Ramli simplified and consolidated Bulog's accounts from 117 to only nine accounts.
Recent activities
Since leaving government, Rizal Ramli has continued to play an active role in public policy discussion in Indonesia. He is frequently critical of the government, often providing media comment and arguing that further reform is needed in various areas in Indonesia.[2]