by Riszqie Naskiah Naim 1 tahun yang lalu 4 comments 379 views

Pontianak State Polytechnic (Polnep) held an Inspiration Class for 53 inbound students of Independent Student Exchange Program (PMM) Batch 3 of 2023. The event was taken place at the Directorate Meeting Room on Thursday (12/10) and presented former West Kalimantan Governor of 2018-2023 H. Sutarmidji as resource person. The event was attended by Polnep’s vice directors, heads and secretaries of departments, and heads of study programs. Vice Director for Academic Affairs and Planning H. Irawan Suharto officially opened the event.
In his welcoming remarks, H. Irawan Suharto expressed his gratitude for the presence of former Governor H. Sutarmidji to serve as resource person. “H. Sutarmidji is the right man to speak before us since he was in the position of governor, Mayor of Pontianak, and lecturer of Law Faculty Universitas Tanjungpura,” he said. He also hoped that Sutarmidji’s story could inspire young generation attending the event.
Sutarmidji is the sixth child of nine siblings from the marriage of Tahir Abubakar and Djaedah. He graduated from SDN 54 Pontianak in 1974. He continued his education in SMPN 1 Pontianak and SMA Santo Paulus, and graduated in 1977 and 1981, respectively.  He earned his Bachelor of Law from Universitas Tanjungpura (Untan) in 1986 and Master of Social Science from Universitas Indonesia in 1993. He started to sell cake after performing Fajr prayer when he was at 2nd grade of elementary school in order to help his mother. His parents also taught him strong discipline in life, especially for his formal education. After his school hours, little Sutarmidji became a newspaper boy. He still did the profession until he was in semester 7 of his
Sutarmidji had dreamed of becoming a head of region since he was a kid. His dream came true, not only achieved the position of Mayor of Pontianak but also succeeded to become the Governor of West Kalimantan 2018-2023. Hence, he advised the PMM awardees to have a big dream, even to become a president.
Back in 1990, Sutarmidji received a scholarship to continue his study for master degree and he chose to study in Universitas Indonesia. In that period, he managed to become a trader selling ship tickets and garlic. “We have to be creative and smart in seizing the moment since the opportunity only knocks once,” he added. Afterwards, Sutarmidji became a lecturer and teach at Law Faculty of Untan since 1987 until 2000. He also lectured at Law Faculty of Universitas Panca Bhakti in 1998.
The former governor started his political career with joining the United Development Party (PPP). Following his master degree completion, he reactivated his membership in that party. In 1999 election, he was successfully elected as a member of Pontianak Regional House of Representative. Later on in 2003, he was elected as the Vice Mayor of Pontianak along with dr. H. Buchary Abdurrachman as the Mayor. Subsequently, he was successfully elected as Mayor of Pontianak in 2008 and went on to the 2nd office term in 2013. Then in governor election in 2018, paired with H. Ria Norsan the former Regent of Mempawah, H Sutarmidji was elected as the new Governor of West Kalimantan.
At the end of his presentation, Sutarmidji told the audience of PMM students that there were four keys to be successful in life, namely honesty, discipline, inner circle support, and skills.

(Translated by: Riszqie Naskiah Na’im)

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