Dr. Hajriyanto Y. Thohari is an alumnus of Arabic Literature Study Program in 1985. Even though he is based on literature, his career is more prominent in the political field. Currently, he is the Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia in an Arab country, Lebanon. Apart from being active in politics, he is also a Muhammadiyah cadre who is known to be critical. Born in Karanganyar, on June 26, 1960, he was Deputy Chairman of the Indonesian People’s Consultative Assembly for the period 2009–2014 from the Golkar Party.
According to the impression of Dr Amir Ma’ruf, the current Head of the Arabic Literature Study Program who became a scholar of his older generation when he studied Arabic Literature, Mr Hajriyanto has a simple communication style and has good lobbying skills. He also has a sharp sensitivity and critical power in responding to a thing or phenomenon with the privilege of assessing that everything is not always black and white; wrong right.
If according to Dr Hindun, a classmate of his, since he was a student, Pak Hajriyanto was indeed a ‘talking very talker’ person, a cool orator, even being dubbed a copy of Pak Ali Murtopo or Pak Harmoko, two national politicians who are famous for ‘talking a lot as well. He was once a lecturer at Diponegoro University (UNDIP) Semarang, but it seems that the profession does not accommodate his talents and interests. Subsequently, he was active in the Muhammadiyah religious organization and became the chairman of PP Muhammadiyah.
Another testimony from Abdul Jawat, M. Hum. who stated that Pak Hajriyanto likes to collect novels from world writers, maybe even more than political books. For Pak Hajriyanto, novels provide inspiration and inspiration for the political problems he faces. “Politics is my daily food and novels provide solutions.”