Raja Juli Antoni

Raja Juli Antoni is the son of Raja Ramli Ibrahim, a Riau public figure who once served as Deputy Chair of the Muhammadiyah Riau Regional Leadership (PW).^[3][4]

Raja is an alumnus of the Darul Arqam Muhammadiyah Islamic Boarding School, Garut, West Java.^[5]

He received a bachelor's degree in Al-Qur'an and Tafsir Science from IAIN Syarif Hidayatullah in 2001 with a thesis Ayat-ayat Jihad: Studi Kritis terhadap Penafsiran Jihad sebagai Perang Suci (Jihad Verses: Critical Study of the Interpretation of Jihad as Holy War).^[6][7]

Raja then continued his master's degree at the Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford, England, through a Chevening scholarship in 2004 and completed it with a thesis, The Conflict in Aceh: Searching for a Peaceful Conflict Resolution Process.^[6]

With the Australian Development Scholarship (ADS), Raja continued his doctoral studies at the School of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Queensland, Australia in 2010. He obtained a PhD degree with a dissertation on Religious Peacebuilders: The Role of Religion in Peacebuilding in Conflict Torn Society in Southeast Asia, using case studies of Mindanao (Southern Philippines) and Maluku (Indonesia).^[6]

He became the executive director of The Indonesian Institute (TII). He is also quite active in writing opinions published in several media.^[8]

A former General Chairperson of the Central Leadership of the Muhammadiyah Student Association (PP IPM) for the 2000–2002 period,^[5] he also became the executive director of the Maarif Institute.^[9][10]

In 2009, he ran in the 2009 Legislative General Election from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, representing West Java IX district (Subang, Sumedang, and Majalengka Regencies). However, he was not elected because he lost to Maruarar Sirait and Tubagus Hasanuddin.^[11]

He was a candidate for General Chairperson of PP Muhammadiyah for the 2015–2020 period but then resigned because he wanted to concentrate in politics as Secretary-General of the Indonesian Solidarity Party, which he had just founded with several other young politicians.^{[9][10][12][13]}

On 3 June 2024, Raja was appointed as the acting deputy head of the Nusantara Capital City Authority following the resignation of Dhony Rahajoe.^[14] With the end of his tenure as Deputy Minister of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning on 20 October 2024, his term as the acting deputy head of the Nusantara Capital City Authority also ended.^[15][16]