Rachmat Gobel, a member of Indonesia's parliament (DPR) from the NasDem faction and a former trade minister, died in Jakarta at 03:20 on Friday, July 10, 2026, at age 63. He had attended a NasDem faction discussion at Senayan the afternoon before.

"It was sudden, because yesterday he looked perfectly healthy," said Hermawi Taslim, an official of NasDem's central executive board (DPP), when news of the death broke Friday morning. The body was laid out at the family home at Jalan Supomo No. 55A, South Jakarta, and was to be taken to Gorontalo for burial.

The most votes, the shortest window

In the 2024 general election, Gobel won 195,332 votes in the Gorontalo constituency, the highest tally of his career, up from 146,067 in 2019. Constituent trust was growing when he died less than a year into what should have been a term running to 2029.

In parliament, he held a rare combination of credentials: national leadership as deputy speaker of the DPR (2019-2024) and an electoral base that grew from one election to the next. For NasDem, those two things rarely coincide in one cadre.

What happens when a member of parliament dies?

Pergantian Antar Waktu (PAW), or interim seat replacement, is the legal mechanism for filling a vacated DPR seat before a term expires, including in cases of death. NasDem's central board has authority to submit a replacement name to the General Elections Commission (KPU), which then appoints the candidate with the next-highest vote count from the Gorontalo constituency. The process typically takes several months, from the party's formal submission to the KPU's official decision.

For Gorontalo, whoever enters through the PAW process will inherit a seat from the only son of the region to serve simultaneously as a minister and a leader of the national legislature. Gobel's role as deputy speaker in 2019-2024 was the first time a Gorontalo representative had reached the leadership level of the national parliament.

From the family factory to parliament

Rachmat Gobel was born in Gorontalo on September 3, 1962, the fifth child of H. Thayeb Mohammad Gobel, founder of Gobel Group. After completing his studies at Chuo University in Japan in 1987, he returned to the family business, which had built a long-running partnership with Panasonic. Before becoming a director, he had worked as a factory sweeper while in junior high school, a story he often told as part of how he was shaped.

His corporate career included roles as president commissioner of PT Panasonic Gobel Indonesia, commissioner of PT Indosat Tbk, and commissioner of PT Visi Media Asia. In October 2014, President Jokowi appointed him trade minister. He held the post for ten months before Thomas Lembong replaced him in the August 2015 cabinet reshuffle.

After leaving the cabinet, he joined NasDem and first won a DPR seat in 2019. He is survived by his wife Retno Damayanti, two children, Nurfitria Sekarwillis Kusumawardhani and Mohammad Arif Gobel, and grandchildren.

Condolences across institutions

Joko Widodo called Gobel "a good minister, a hardworking minister." Jakarta Governor Pramono Anung remembered him as "very friendly, caring for others, a truly good person." The Japanese deputy ambassador sent a personal message of condolence, a signal that the network Gobel built over decades in Japan-Indonesia business did not end at domestic political borders.

NasDem DPP chairman Willy Aditya issued a formal statement: "We extend our deepest condolences. Innalillahi wa inna ilaihi raji'un. H. Rachmat Gobel has returned to Allah's mercy. He passed away on Friday, July 10, 2026, at 03:20 WIB, in Jakarta."

Beyond the PAW process in parliament, two things warrant watching: succession within the Gobel-Panasonic corporate network, and the impact of losing a senior cadre on NasDem's base in Sulawesi and eastern Indonesia ahead of the party's next consolidation cycle.