known as Jokowi, is an Indonesian politician and businessman who is the 7th and current president of Indonesia

Joko Widodo (Indonesian pronunciation: [dʒɔkɔ widɔdɔ], born Mulyono,[2] 21 June 1961), also known as Jokowi, is an Indonesian politician and businessman who is the 7th and current president of Indonesia. Elected in July 2014 as the first president not to come from an elite political or military background, he was previously the Mayor of Surakarta from 2005 to 2012, and the Governor of Jakarta from 2012 to 2014. Prior to his political career, he was a teak furniture businessman.[3][4] He achieved national prominence in 2009 for his work as the Mayor of Surakarta. A member of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), he was named as the party's candidate for the 2012 Jakarta gubernatorial election, alongside Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (often known as Ahok)[5] as his running mate.[6] Defeating incumbent Fauzi Bowo,[7] he took office in October 2012 and reinvigorated Jakartan politics, introducing publicised blusukan visits (unannounced spot checks)[8] and improving the city's bureaucracy, reducing corruption in the process. He also introduced years-late programs to improve quality of life, including universal healthcare, dredging the city's main river to reduce flooding, and inaugurating the construction of the city's subway system.[9] The PDI-P nominated Jokowi, who was already seen as a rising star in Indonesian politics, for the 2014 presidential election.[10] Winning a majority of the popular vote, he was named president-elect on 22 July 2014, to bitter protest from his opponent Prabowo Subianto, who disputed the outcome and withdrew from the race before the count was completed.[11][12] As president, Jokowi has primarily focused on infrastructure, introducing or restarting long-delayed programs to improve connectivity in the Indonesian archipelago.[13] On foreign policy, his administration has emphasised "protecting Indonesia’s sovereignty",[14] with the sinking of illegal foreign fishing vessels[15] 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.[16][17] He was re-elected in 2019 for a second five-year term, again defeating Prabowo Subianto.[18] Contents 1    Early life and career 1.1    Education and business career 2    Political career 2.1    Mayor of Surakarta 2.2    Governor of Jakarta 3    Presidential candidacies 3.1    2014 3.2    2019 4    Presidency of Indonesia 4.1    Government and cabinets 4.2    Economy 4.3    Politics 4.4    Law and human rights 4.5    Foreign policy 4.6    Capital relocation 5    Family and personal life 6    Awards and honours 7    References 8    Further reading 9    External links Early life and career Joko Widodo was born Mulyono on 21 June 1961 in Surakarta[1] and is of Javanese descent.[2] He is the eldest of four siblings and is the only son of Noto Mihardjo (father) and Sudjiatmi Notomihardjo (mother). He has three younger sisters, named Iit Sriyantini, Ida Yati, and Titik Relawati.[19][20] His father came from Karanganyar, while his grandparents came from a village in Boyolali.[21] 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.[2] At the age of 12, he started working in his father's furniture workshop.[22][23] Throughout his childhood, Jokowi's family constantly faced evictions from their landlords; this greatly affected him, and later in his career, he organised medical housing in Surakarta during his years as mayor of the city.[24] Education and business career Jokowi's education began at State Elementary School 111 Tirtoyoso, known for being a school for less wealthy citizens.[25] He continued his studies in State Junior High School 1 Surakarta,[26] and later wanted to attend State Senior High School 1 Surakarta, but failed the entrance exam and instead enrolled in State Senior High School 6 Surakarta.[27] Jokowi graduated from the Forestry faculty at Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, in 1985, where his work included studies and research on the use of plywood. He later began work at PT Kertas Kraft Aceh (id), a state-owned firm in the province of Aceh, Sumatra.[28] He worked in what is today Bener Meriah Regency between 1986 and 1988, as a supervisor of forestry and raw materials of a Pinus merkusii plantation.[29][30] Jokowi, however, soon became uninterested in his activities in the firm and returned home. He then began working in his grandfather's furniture factory for a year before establishing his own company, Rakabu, whose namesake is his first child. The company, which mainly focused on teak furniture, nearly went bankrupt at one point but survived following a Rp 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".[28][31][4] By 2002, Jokowi had become the chairman of Surakarta's furniture manufacturers association.[4] 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.[23] 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).[32][33] Jokowi reported his net worth in 2018 to be Rp 50.25 billion (US$3.5 million), mostly in the form of property holdings in Central Java and Jakarta.[34] Political career Mayor of Surakarta Official Portrait of Joko Widodo as the Mayor of Surakarta Jokowi as Surakarta's mayor and his deputy Hadi Rudyatmo in traditional Javanese wayang wong costume. 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.[35][36] The pair won 36.62% of the vote against the incumbent Slamet Suryanto and two other candidates. During the campaign, many questioned his background as a property and furniture businessman. However, one academic paper claimed his leadership style was successful because it established an interactive relationship with the people, through which he was able to induce people's strong faith in him.[37] He adopted the development framework of European cities (which he frequently travelled to as a businessman) as a guide for changes in Surakarta.[38] Jokowi's notable policies as mayor included:[39] Building new traditional markets & renovating existing markets, constructing a 7-km city walk with a 3-meter wide pedestrian walkway along Surakarta's main street, revitalising the Balekambang and Sriwedari parks, employing stricter regulations on cutting down trees along the city's main streets, rebranding the city as a centre of Javanese culture and tourism under the tagline 'The Spirit of Java', promoting the city as a centre for meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE), launching healthcare and education insurance program for all residents, a local bus rapid transit system named Batik Solo Trans and a Solo Techno Park, which helped support the Esemka Indonesian car project.[40] It was during his tenure as mayor that he conducted the blusukan, an impromptu visit to specific areas to listen to people's issues, which proved popular later in his political career. He also prohibited his family members from bidding for city projects, therefore suppressing the risk of corruption. His policies brought him into conflict with the then provincial governor Bibit Waluyo, who on one occasion insulted Jokowi as a "fool" for the latter's opposition to a provincial construction project in Surakarta.[41] His supporters pointed to rapid positive changes in Surakarta under his leadership and the branding the city with the motto 'Solo: The Spirit of Java'. While in office he successfully relocated antique stalls in the Banjarsari Gardens without incident, a helpful move in revitalising the functions of the open green land; he emphasised the importance of business firms engaging in community activities; he improved communications with the local community by appearing regularly on local television. As a follow-up of the new branding of the city, he applied for Surakarta to become a member of the Organization of World Heritage Cities, which was approved in 2006, and subsequently had the city chosen to host the organisation's conference in October 2008. In 2007, Surakarta had also hosted the World Music Festival (Festival Musik Dunia/FMD) which was held at the complex of Fort Vastenburg near the centre of the city. The FMD in 2008 was held in the Mangkunegaran Palace Complex. Part of Jokowi's style was his populist 'can-do' (punya gaye) elements designed to build bonds with the broad electorate.[37] As mayor, he became personally involved in an incident just before Christmas 2011 when the Surakarta municipality had overdue bills of close to $1 million (Rp 8.9 billion) owed to the state-owned electricity company Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN). Following its policy of pursuing a more disciplined approach to collecting overdue bills, it imposed a blackout on street lights in the city just before Christmas. The city government quickly authorised payment but in settling the bill protested that the PLN should consider the public interest before taking such action. To reinforce the point, Jokowi made a highly publicised personal visit to the local PLN office to deliver the Rp 8.9 billion in cash in the form of hundreds of bundles of notes and even small coins.[42] In 2010, he was re-elected for a second term, again running with Hadi. They won 90.09% of the vote, losing in only a single polling station.[43] He was later chosen as the 'Tempo Leader of Choice' by Tempo news magazine (2008) and received a 'Changemakers Award' from Republika newspaper (2010); his name also started being considered in national polls for the governorship of Jakarta, long before PDI-P's nomination, including those by University of Indonesia and Cyrus Network (2011).[37] In 2012, Jokowi faced a smear campaign after declaring his intention to run for the governorship of Jakarta.[44] A group calling itself Save Solo, Save Jakarta and Save Indonesia Team (TS3) reported him to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) for allegedly having facilitated misuse of education funds by his subordinates in Surakarta in 2010. KPK investigated the allegation, found it was based on false data and said there was no indication Jokowi had misappropriated funds.[45] Governor of Jakarta Jokowi's two versions of official portrait as Governor of Jakarta (2012) Despite disappointment from some residents of Surakarta that he would not complete his second term as mayor,[46] Jokowi ran in the 2012 Jakarta gubernatorial election and defeated the incumbent Fauzi Bowo in a runoff round.[7] His inner circle of advisers in Jakarta reportedly included people such as FX Hadi 'Rudy' Rudyatmo, Sumartono Hadinoto and Anggit Nugroho, who were colleagues while he was mayor of Surakarta, as well as Basuki Tjahaja Purnama ("Ahok"), his deputy as governor of Jakarta.[47] Jokowi continued the blusukan practice he had adopted as mayor of Surakarta by regularly visiting population centers, especially slums. During these visits, he wore simple, informal clothes and stopped at markets or walked along narrow Jakarta alleys to listen and witness firsthand about issues addressed by residents such as the price of food, housing difficulties, flooding, and transportation. Polling and media coverage suggested that Jokowi's hands-on style proved very popular both in Jakarta and elsewhere across Indonesia.[48] After taking office,