Joko Widodo

Joko Widodo (born Mulyono, 21 June 1961), popularly known as Jokowi, is an Indonesian politician and businessman who is the seventh and current president of Indonesia.

A member of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), he was the country's first president to not have emerged from the country's political or military elite.

Jokowi was born Mulyono on 21 June 1961 in Surakarta, and is of Javanese descent.

He is the eldest of four siblings and is the only son of Widjiatno Notomihardjo and Sudjiatmi.

He has three younger sisters, Iit Sriyantini, Idayati, and Titik Relawati.

His father came from Karanganyar, while his grandparents came from a village in Boyolali.

Jokowi was often sick as a toddler, and his name was thus changed—a common practice in Javanese culture—to Joko Widodo, with widodo meaning "healthy" in Javanese.

At the age of 12, he started working in his father's furniture workshop.

Jokowi's family lived in three different rented homes (one of which the government declared condemned property) during his youth, which greatly affected him.

Later he organized low income housing in Surakarta during his years as mayor of that city.

Jokowi's education began at State Elementary School 111 Tirtoyoso, an ordinary public school.

He continued his studies at State Junior High School 1 Surakarta.

Later he wanted to attend State Senior High School 1 Surakarta, but did not score high enough on the entrance exam so he enrolled in the newer State Senior High School 6 in that city.

After graduating from university, Jokowi began work at PT Kertas Kraft Aceh (id), a state-owned firm in Aceh, Sumatra.

He graduated from Gadjah Mada University in 1985, and married his wife, Iriana, a year later.

He worked in the present-day Bener Meriah Regency between 1986 and 1988 as a supervisor of forestry and raw materials of a Sumatran pine plantation.

However, Jokowi soon lost interest in the firm and returned home.

He began working in his grandfather's furniture factory for a year before establishing his own company, Rakabu, whose namesake is his first child.

He obtained his initial capital from a Rp 15 million investment from his father and a bank loan.

The company, which mainly focused on teak furniture, nearly went bankrupt at one point but survived following an IDR 500 million loan from Perusahaan Gas Negara.

By 1991, the company began exporting its products, and they were successful in international markets.

The firm first established a presence in the European market in France, and it was a French customer named Bernard who gave Joko Widodo the nickname "Jokowi".

By 2002, Jokowi had become the chairman of Surakarta's furniture manufacturers association.

Ultimately he decided to become a politician and promote reform in his home town, Surakarta, after seeing the neat layouts of some European cities while promoting his furniture there.

After becoming mayor, he also made a joint venture with politician and former lieutenant general Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, when the two founded PT Rakabu Sejahtera (from Rakabu and Luhut's PT Toba Sejahtera).

After first joining PDI-P in 2004, Jokowi ran in the mayoral race in Surakarta in 2005 with F. X. Hadi Rudyatmo as his running mate, with the support of PDI-P and the National Awakening Party.

The pair won 36.62% of the vote against the incumbent Slamet Suryanto and two other candidates.

He worked as a carpenter and a furniture exporter before being elected mayor of Surakarta in 2005.

He previously served as governor of Jakarta from 2012 to 2014 and mayor of Surakarta from 2005 to 2012.

Jokowi was born and raised in a riverside slum in Surakarta.

He achieved national prominence as mayor and was elected governor of Jakarta in 2012, with Basuki Tjahaja Purnama as vice governor.

As governor, he reinvigorated local politics, introduced publicised blusukan visits (unannounced spot checks) and improved the city's bureaucracy, reducing corruption in the process.

He also introduced years-late programs to improve quality of life, including universal healthcare, dredged the city's main river to reduce flooding, and inaugurated the construction of the city's subway system.

In 2014, he was nominated as the PDI-P's candidate in that year's presidential election, choosing Jusuf Kalla as his running mate.

Jokowi was elected over his opponent Prabowo Subianto, who disputed the outcome of the election, and was inaugurated on 20 October 2014.

Since taking office, Jokowi has focused on economic growth and infrastructure development as well as an ambitious health and education agenda.

On foreign policy, his administration has emphasised "protecting Indonesia's sovereignty", with the sinking of illegal foreign fishing vessels and the prioritising and scheduling of capital punishment for drug smugglers.

The latter was despite intense representations and diplomatic protests from foreign powers, including Australia and France.

In 2018, Jokowi reported his net worth to be Rp 50.25 billion (US$3.5 million), mostly in the form of property holdings in Central Java and Jakarta.

He was re-elected in 2019 for a second five-year term, again defeating Prabowo Subianto.