Joko Widodo

Joko Widodo

Joko Widodo is an Indonesian politician who is the 7th and current president of Indonesia. He was previously the Mayor of Surakarta from 2005 to 2012, and the Governor of Jakarta from 2012 to 2014. In 2009, he became the first member of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) to be elected to a five-year term in office.

About Joko Widodo in brief

Summary Joko WidodoJoko Widodo is an Indonesian politician who is the 7th and current president of Indonesia. He was previously the Mayor of Surakarta from 2005 to 2012, and the Governor of Jakarta from 2012 to 2014. Elected in July 2014 as the first president not to come from an elite political or military background. As president, Jokowi has primarily focused on infrastructure, introducing or restarting long-delayed programs to improve connectivity in the Indonesian archipelago. 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. He is the eldest of four siblings and is the only son of Noto Mihardjo and Sudjiatmi Notomihard jo. He has three younger sisters, named Iit Sriyantini, Ida Yati, and Titik Relawati. His father came from Karanganyar, while his grandparents came from a village in Boyolali. His grandfather was a teak teak maker, whose child namesake is his father’s namesake, Rakabu. His name is a common practice in Javanese culture, with widodo meaning “healthy” in Jvanese. He has a son, Joko Mulyono, who was born on 21 June 1961, and a daughter, Jolie Mulyo, who is also a politician. He 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, a state-owned firm in the province of Aceh, Sumatra. In 1991, he decided to become a politician and promote reform in his home town Surakarta. In 2002, he had his first child, a son named Jokoki Bernard who gave him the nickname “Joko Widodo” by his friends and family. In 2009, he became the first member of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) to be elected to a five-year term in office. He will be re-elected in 2019 for a second five- year term, again defeating Prabowo Subianto. In 2012, he was named as the party’s candidate for the 2012 Jakarta gubernatorial election, alongside Basuki Tjahaja Purnama as his running mate. He took office in October 2012 and reinvigorated Jakartan politics, introducing publicised blusukan visits and improving the city’s bureaucracy, reducing corruption in the process. He also introduced years-late programs to improved quality of life, including universal healthcare, dredging the main river to reduce flooding, and inaugurating the construction of the subway system. 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. He then began working in his own furniture factory, which mainly focused on teak.