Desy Nurhayati and Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono swore in Vice Adm. Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno as the new Navy chief of staff at the Merdeka Palace on Tuesday.
Sumardjono will hand over the command baton to his successor at the Navy's Eastern Fleet Command in Surabaya on Friday. An exit briefing by Sumardjono and a joint fleet inspection by the outgoing and incoming Navy chiefs will mark the change of guard. Sumardjono was Navy chief of staff for less than eight months.
Born on Sept. 20, 1952, Tedjo graduated from the Naval Academy in 1975. He served in the Navy's Air Fleet unit for 14 years before becoming a warship commander. His last command was of the KRI Multatuli in 1996.
Tedjo was appointed commander of the Navy's East Indonesian Fleet in 2003 and deputy commander of the Naval Officers' Staff and Command School later that same year. He was named the Indonesian Military (TNI) chief of general affairs last year.
Among those attending the inauguration of the new Navy chief were Vice President Jusuf Kalla, Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Widodo Adi Sutjipto, State Secretary Hatta Radjasa and TNI chief Gen. Djoko Santoso.
Also on Tuesday, President Yudhoyono's brother-in-law, Brig. Gen. Pramono Edhie Wibowo, was inaugurated as the new chief of the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus), as part of the latest reshuffle within the TNI.
Pramono, who is the brother of First Lady Ani Yudhoyono, replaces Maj. Gen. Soenarko, who will serve as the Iskandar Muda Military commander overseeing Aceh.
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Agustadi Sasongko Purnomo denied that the Kopassus top position swap had anything to do with the 2009 general elections.
"Many military commanders are retiring, so we need to do this reshuffle now. We do it on a professional basis," he told reporters after leading the handover ceremony at the Special Forces' headquarters in Cijantung, East Jakarta.
Pramono said he would "continue what Pak Narko had been doing" with his leadership of the Army's elite force.
Pramono, born in 1955, is the son of Sarwo Edhie Wibowo, one of the "red beret" troops who helped bring in the New Order under Lt. Gen. Soeharto in 1965/1966. Soeharto was later sworn in as president and ruled the country for 32 years before stepping down in 1998.
Prominent figures attending Pramono's inauguration included the youngest son of the late Soeharto, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, and Soeharto's son-in-law and former Kopassus chief, Prabowo Subianto Djojohadikusumo.