Basuki Tjahaja Purnama

He was the second minority governor of Jakarta with ethnic Chinese ancestry and also of the Evangelical faith, following Henk Ngantung, who was the sole Catholic and ethnic Minahasan governor to hold office from 1964–65.

Ahok was a legislator in the Indonesian People's Representative Council (DPR) and Regent of East Belitung.

Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (, Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: Chûng Van-ho̍k; born 29 June 1966) is an Indonesian businessman, politician, and former governor of Jakarta.

He is colloquially known by his Hakka Chinese name, Ahok.

Basuki Tjahaja Purnama was born on 29 June 1966 and grew up in Manggar, East Belitung.

He is the first son of Buniarti Ningsih and the late Indra Tjahaja Purnama.

He has three siblings: Basuri Tjahaja Purnama, Fifi Lety, and Harry Basuki.

He graduated with a bachelor of science degree in geological engineering in 1989 and returned to his hometown in Belitung to build a company that dealt in mining contracts.

After two years of working in the company, he decided to pursue a master's degree in financial management at Prasetiya Mulya Business School in Jakarta.

He graduated with a Master of Business Administration.

Ahok entered politics in his home region of Belitung.

Ahok firstly married Veronica Tan, a fellow ethnic Chinese of Hokkien ancestry hailing from Medan, on 6 September 1997 and the couple had three children, Nicolas Sean, Natania, and Daud Albeneer.

He contested the 2005 East Belitung regent election with Khairul Effendi as his running mate and was elected with 37.13% of the vote.

He was hopeful Indonesia was breaking with its long and often violent history of prejudice and resentment.

He is nicknamed "The Father" and "The Law" for his firm stance against corruption.

Ahok confronted vital issues related to traffic congestion, labour, corruption and bureaucracy.

He mediated a minimum wage increase, proposed incentives for street vendors to move to designated markets in order to reduce congestion, migrated poor villagers to new flats, introduced surprise inspections of government offices, and proposed installing CCTVs to improve accountability.

Ahok resigned from his position as East Belitung regent on 11 December 2006 in order to run in the 2007 Bangka-Belitung gubernatorial election.

He later credited former Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid, for convincing him to run for public office.

Wahid supported Ahok's candidacy and praised his healthcare reforms.

However, Ahok was defeated by Eko Maulana Ali.

In 2008, Ahok wrote a biography titled Merubah Indonesia (Reforming Indonesia).

He was elected to the House of Representatives for the 2009–2014 term but resigned in 2012 to run for the deputy governorship of Jakarta, to which he was elected.

In 2009, Ahok was elected to the DPR as a member of Golkar.

He was elected with 119,232 votes, and was assigned to the Second Commission.

In 2011, he generated controversy in a visit to his local constituency, during which he was recorded by the local media condemning local tin mining businesses for causing environmental damage.

The comment was regarded as an insult by a local youth NGO, who reported him to the House Ethics Committee.

In 2011, Ahok considered running for Jakarta governor as an independent candidate.

However, he opted not to run, as he was pessimistic about his chances of receiving 250,000 signatures, a requirement for running as an independent gubernatorial candidate in Jakarta.

He then became the running mate of Joko Widodo in the 2012 election.

The pair won 1,847,157 (42.6%) votes in the first round, and 2,472,130 (53.82%) in the second round, defeating incumbent governor Fauzi Bowo.

The ticket was nominated by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra).

In November 2014, he became governor of Jakarta, as his predecessor Joko Widodo had become president.

On 10 September 2014, Ahok left Gerindra because he opposed the party's proposal to scrap direct elections for local leaders.

When Joko Widodo took a temporary leave from his post as Jakarta governor to campaign for the presidency, Ahok became acting Governor of Jakarta from 1 June to 22 July 2014.

Ahead of the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election, Ahok's political rivals aligned themselves with Islamic extremists to exploit religious and racial intolerance, resulting in Ahok being accused of blasphemy in October 2016.

He then lost the election to former Education Minister Anies Baswedan and was imprisoned for blasphemy.

They divorced in 2018, with Ahok gaining custody of the two younger children.

In 2019, Ahok married Puput Nastiti Devi, a police officer who previously served as the aide of his ex-wife, and the couple has two children: Yosafat Abimanyu Purnama and Sarah Eliana Purnama.

Ahok attended Trisakti University, majoring in mineral resources and technology.