Wiranto (born 4 April 1947) is an Indonesian politician and retired army general, who is serving as the chairman of the Presidential Advisory Council, since December 2019.

On 27 July 2016, Wiranto was appointed Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs, replacing Luhut Binsar Panjaitan.

[1][2] Wiranto played a significant role in facilitating severe human rights violations by the Indonesian army and Jakarta-backed militias, during Indonesia's withdrawal from the occupied territory of East Timor in 1999.

[3] In May 2004, the United Nations-backed Special Panels of the Dili District Court indicted Wiranto and charged him with war crimes.

[10] However, training to become an architect was not feasible financially, so Wiranto decided to join the Indonesian Military Academy in Magelang in Central Java, now known as Akademi Militer or Akmil.

At this stage of his career, it was speculated that Wiranto, together with Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Agum Gumelar, A.M. Hendropriyono, and Farid Zainuddin were the top five officers from ABRI's secular/Nationalist "Red and White" faction.

Nevertheless, Suharto was re-elected for a seventh term as president by the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) as the situation continued to deteriorate.

[23] In August, Wiranto made a move to appease the people of Aceh by withdrawing the status of Military Operations Region (DOM) from the Province.

In January 1999, he met with reformist leaders and in April 1999, supervised the establishment of the Republic of Indonesia Police (POLRI) as an autonomous entity rather than subordinate to ABRI.

Wiranto also supervised security during the 1999 Legislative Elections during which TNI and POLRI adopted a neutral role rather than support Golkar as had been the case during Suharto's regime.

As Commander of TNI, Wiranto was also involved with the withdrawal of troops from East Timor when the Province voted to become an independent nation.

[29] On 24 February 2003, the Special Panels of the Dili District Court indicted Wiranto and charged him with crimes against humanity.

[31] In August 2003, Wiranto made the decision to run for president after he declared his intentions to participate in the Golkar National Convention.

[32] Wiranto's opponents for the convention were Akbar, Prabowo, Aburizal Bakrie, Surya Paloh, Jusuf Kalla, Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, and Nurcholish Madjid.

By April 2004, the month of the National Convention, Hamengkubuwono X and Nurcolish had withdrawn from the race whilst Kalla left Golkar to become Yudhoyono's running mate.

On 1 September, they signed an official statement and called themselves the United Awakened Archipelago Coalition (Koalisi Nusantara Bangkit Bersatu).

The next month in September 2005, Wiranto joined the Nationhood Union, a mass organization which was created by former Golkar member Marwah Daud Ibrahim.

[40] Wiranto ran unsuccessfully for the vice-presidency as Jusuf Kalla's running mate in the 2009 Indonesian presidential election.

When Jokowi reshuffled his cabinet on 27 July 2016, Wiranto was appointed Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs.

[46] On 10 October 2019, Wiranto was stabbed twice by a man allegedly affiliated with the Islamic State-linked militant group Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD).

Wiranto survived and was flown by helicopter to the Gatot Soebroto Army Hospital in Jakarta, where he underwent surgery.

A range of other Indonesian leaders and senior officials visited Wiranto in hospital including vice-president Jusuf Kalla, state intelligence agency head Budi Gunawan, former coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno, and presidential advisory board member Agum Gumelar.

[50] The attacker, identified as Syahrial Alamsyah alias Abu Rara, was apprehended at the scene, along with his wife, Fitria Diana (20), who stabbed a local sub-district police chief, Commissioner Dariyanto, in the back.

Abu Rara said he was not part of a terror cell and he only decided to make the attack when he heard a helicopter and found out the Wiranto was visiting.

[54] Harits Abu Ulya, a spokesman for a group called the Community of Ideological Islamic Analyst (CIIA), claimed Wiranto himself was partly to blame for the attack because the minister's statements had hurt people's feelings.

[57] Due to party neutrality requirement to become the chairperson of the council, Wiranto left Hanura automatically per se.

[63] The head of the Public Information Bureau of the National Police Headquarters Brigadier General Dedi Prasetyo said the two perpetrators of the attack on Wiranto were suspected of being exposed to Islamic State radicalism and after the incident, he had to be rushed to the nearest hospital for first aid and referred to Gatot Soebroto Army Hospital, Jakarta.

Nicholas Koumjian, a United Nations prosecutor from the Special Serious Criminal Court in Dili said Wiranto should be held responsible for the 1999 violence.