The Vice President’s Palace is located not in the same complex of the State Palace and the Merdeka Palace where the President resides and performs his daily routines. The palace is located on Jalan Merdeka Selatan No. 6, Jakarta, and can be accessed either from Jalan Kebon Sirih or Jalan Merdeka Selatan.

 Brief History

The history of vice presidency in Indonesia started when Drs. Mohammad Hatta was elected as the first Vice President in 1945. The office of the Vice President at the time was located in front of Gedung Agung in Yogyakarta. I Wangsa Widjaja was the chief of staff of the office.

After Indonesia regained its sovereignty on 27 December 1949, the Office of the Vice President then moved to Jalan Merdeka Selatan No. 13 in Jakarta. The site was formerly the Dutch General Spoor’s residence. The building is now used as Garuda Indonesia’s head office.

When Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX became the vice president, the office was moved to Jalan Merdeka Selatan No.6, in which Sri Sultan performed his daily activities and resided. The building he used to live in is now known as the Vice President’s Palace.

Prof. Dr. Selo Soemardjan, a sociologist, was the chief of staff at this period. He had been a secretary to Sri Sultan since 1942.

The office was not as large as we can see today. The Office of the Vice President used to have only a single access that is from Jalan Merdeka Selatan, and not yet connected directly to Jalan Kebon Sirih, since the Military Court was located there.


 

It was in the era of Adam Malik, formerly Minister of Foreign Affairs, when the Office of the Vice President was enlarged. Mr Malik at the time took over some areas adjacent to his office and built another building to hold more employees he had. This effort had also created another access to the office from Jalan Kebon Sirih. The building is now made as the office for Dharma Wanita Persatuan (the organization of civil servants’ wives). As time goes by, the Office of the Vice President builds more buildings to accommodate more employees to support the Vice President’s duties.