[2] Born in Singapore, Jonan received his Bachelor's degree in Accounting from Airlangga University, Surabaya in 1986, and his M.A.

KAI's 27,000 employees with low expectations in terms of work quality, a financial deficit (in 2008, it lost Rp 82.6 billion), and a high percentage of substandard or broken locomotives, diesel trains, freight cars, and crumbling stations.

[5] In a speech for the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club, Jonan blamed the low train fares as a cause for the railway system's poor service and crowdedness.

[6] Within 5 years, he overturned the public perception of the failing Indonesian rail transportation system.

Within this capacity, Jonan had wanted to ban ride-hailing apps such as Uber and Grab in 2015 citing existing regulations, but he was overridden by Widodo.

On 14 October 2016, the president appointed Ignasius Jonan again, but as Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources with Arcandra Tahar as his deputy.