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Ex-minister Bustanil Arifin passes away
Former cooperatives minister Lt
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ormer cooperatives minister Lt. Gen (ret.) Bustanil Arifin died on Sunday in Los Angeles. He was 85.
“Our beloved Bustanil Arifin died peacefully today,” relative Nilam Patricia said, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com at Bustanil’s house on Jl. Hang Tuah, Jakarta.
Bustanil had been treated in Cedars-Sinai hospital, Los Angeles for pneumonia since January.
His remains will be flown back to Indonesia this week.
Born in Padang Panjang, West Sumatra, on Oct. 10, 1925, Bustanil graduated from Hollandsch-Inlandsche School (HIS) in Medan in 1940, Meer Uitgebreid Lager Onderwijs (MULO), also in Medan, in 1942 and Zyoku Kan Gakkoo school for officials in Batusangkar, West Sumatra, in 1944.
At 18, Bustanil hoped to become a soldier and joined a military training camp in Batusangkar,West Sumatra. His military assignments included covering Medan as a platoon commander under the Medan Special Regiment Batallion 3, North Sumatra.
After Indonesian Independence in 1945, Bustanil pursued his bachelor degree in law at Padjajaran University, Bandung. Before graduating in 1959, Bustanil met with R.A. Suhardani, a young Javanese girl who later became his wife. The couple had four children.
Bustanil’s military career continued to grow and in 1969 he was assigned to hold a post at the National Logistics Agency (Bulog) as a procurement and distribution deputy.
Bustanil also enjoyed a short period as the Indonesian Consul General in New York in 1972 before he was appointed as Bulog chief and PT PP Berdikari president director a year later.
In 1978, Bustanil’s career rose to a new height after becoming the junior cooperative minister while taking charge of Bulog. Successfully running the two jobs, Bustanil was then appointed by President Soeharto twice as the cooperatives minister from 1983 to 1988 and from 1988 to 1993 without leaving his post as Bulog director.
After Soeharto fell from power in 1998, Bustanil was once declared a graft suspect, but the prosecutor’s office at the time said the charges were invalid due to an administrative error.
