Joko Widodo is an Indonesian politician who is currently the Governor of Jakarta and the
President-elect of Indonesia.
He is often better known by the abbreviated name Jokowi.
He was previously the mayor of Surakarta.
He was nominated by his party, the Indonesian Democratic Party – Struggle, to run in the
2012 Jakarta gubernatorial election with Basuki Tjahaja Purnama as his running mate.
He was elected governor of Jakarta on 20 September 2012 after a second round runoff election
in which he defeated the incumbent governor Fauzi Bowo.
Jokowi's win was widely seen as reflecting popular voter support for "new" or "clean"
leaders rather than the "old" style of politics in Indonesia, although he is over 50 years
old.
Jokowi's popularity has risen sharply since his election to the high-profile position
of governor of Jakarta in 2012.
During 2013 and early 2014, he was seen as a potential PDI-P candidate for the Indonesian
presidential election in 2014.
His nomination was announced on 14 March 2014.
On 22 July 2014, Jokowi was named as the President-elect of Indonesia, after being declared the winner
of the presidential election winning more than 53% of the vote over his opponent Prabowo
Subianto, who withdrew from the race before the count was completed disputing the outcome.
Jokowi will serve as Governor of Jakarta until 20 October 2014, the official commencement
date of his term as the 7th President of Indonesia.
Early life and education Joko Widodo is of Javanese descent.
He is the eldest son of Noto Mihardjo and Sudjiatmi Notomihardjo.
He has three younger sisters, named Iit Sriyantini, Ida Yati and Titik Relawati.
Before changing his name, Joko Widodo was called Mulyono.
His father came from Karanganyar, his grandparents came from a village in Boyolali.
His education started in State Primary School 111, Tirtoyoso, known for being a school for
less wealthy citizens.
Due to the financial difficulties in his childhood, he had to work his way through primary school
to earn enough money for school materials and pocket money.
At twelve, he started working in his father's furniture workshop.
The evictions he experienced three times in his childhood affected his way of thinking
and his leadership later on as the mayor of Surakarta as he organised housing in the city.
After primary school, he continued his studies in SMP Negeri 1 Surakarta.
He had wanted to continue his education in SMA Negeri 1 Surakarta, but he failed the
entrance exam and went to SMA Negeri 6 Surakarta instead.
He continued his education in the Forestry Faculty of Gadjah Mada University.
He made use of this chance to study the structure of wood, its utilisation, and its technology.
He completed his degree with the thesis called: "Study on Plywood Consumption in Final Consumption
in Surakarta municipality".
After his graduation in 1985, he worked for BUMN PT Kertas Kraft Aceh and was placed in
the area Hutan Pinus Merkusii di Dataran Tinggi Gayo, Middle Aceh.
Nevertheless, he didn't feel at home and went home to his wife, who was seven months pregnant.
He was determined to work with wood in his uncle Miyono's business named CV Roda Jati.
In 1988, he started his own business under the name of CV Rakabu, referring to his first
child.
The business was quite successful; however due to fraud, it had problems and was closed.
In 1990, he tried again with the money borrowed from his mother.
Political career When he first ran for the office of mayor
of Surakarta, many doubted the ability of a man who had worked as a property and furniture
businessman; however, after a year in office Jokowi had successfully led many progressive
breakthroughs which became widely praised nationally.
One academic paper shows that his leadership style includes an interactional relationship
with the people of Solo, through which he is able to induce people's strong faith in
him.
He adopted the development framework of European cities into his own city of Surakarta.
Highlights of Jokowi's approach during the seven years that he was mayor of Surakarta
include the following: Building new traditional markets – including
an antiques market and a home appliances market Constructing a 7-km city walk with a 3-meter
wide pedestrian walkway along Surakarta's main street
Revitalizing the Balekambang and Sriwedari parks
Stricter regulations on cutting down trees along the city's main streets
Rebranding Surakarta as a center of Javanese culture and tourism under the tagline "The
Spirit of Java" Promoting the city as a center for meetings,
incentives, conventions and exhibitions The blusukan culture, the manner in which
Jokowi made impromptu visits to certain areas to hear directly from the people their needs
and criticisms Prohibiting his family members from bidding
for city projects Healthcare insurance program for all residents
Public transportation in the form of double-decker buses and the railbus
Solo Techno Park, which helped support the Esemka Indonesian car project
His supporters pointed to rapid positive changes in Surakarta under his leadership.
Branding the city with the motto "Solo: The Spirit of Java" was seen as a successful move.
While in office he was able to relocate junk dealers in the Banjarsari Gardens smoothly,
a move which was helpful in revitalizing the functions of the open green land; he emphasized
the importance of business firms engaging in community activities; he improved communications
with the local community.
Jokowi also did not hesitate to dismiss investors who do not agree with the principles of his
leadership.
As a follow-up of the new branding of Surakarta, he applied for Surakarta to become a member
of the Organization of World Heritage Cities, which was approved in 2006, and subsequently
had Surakarta chosen to host the organization's conference in October 2008.
In 2007, Surakarta had also hosted the World Music Festival which was held at the Fort
Vastenburg Complex.
The FMD in 2008 was held in the Mangkunegaran Palace Complex.
Part of Jokowi's personal style has populist "can-do" elements designed to build bonds
with the broad electorate.
This approach has proved highly effective in the past few years.
As just one example, as mayor of Surakarta, he became personally involved in an incident
just before Christmas 2011 when the Surakarta municipality had overdue bills of close to
$1 million owing to state-owned electricity company Perusahaan Listrik Negara.
Following PLN company policy to pursue a more disciplined approach to collect overdue bills,
the PLN imposed a blackout on street lamps in Surakarta just before Christmas.
The city municipality quickly authorized payment but in settling the bill protested that the
PLN should consider the public interest before taking this type of action.
To reinforce the point, Jokowi made a highly publicized 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.
Such interaction-oriented approach quickly raised Jokowi's prominence at the national
level.
Among others, he was chosen as the Tempo's Leaders of Choice by Tempo news magazine and
received Changemakers Award from Republika newspaper; his name also started being considered
in national polls for governorship of Jakarta way before his party nomination of him to
run for the post, including that by Universitas Indonesia and Cyrus Network.
Governor of Jakarta Jokowi has been an active and high-profile
governor of Jakarta.
He has followed the practice of regularly arranging well-publicized visits to local
communities, often in quite poor areas, across Jakarta.
His broad approach is widely said to reflect the similar, successful style of administration
that he adopted while mayor of Surakarta between 2005 and 2007.
His inner circle of advisers in Jakarta is reported to include 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 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama, his current deputy as governor of
Jakarta.
Policies as Governor Blusukan
Not so much a policy as a general approach, Jokowi has actively carried out the practice
known as blusukan of regularly visiting quite poor areas across Jakarta.
During these visits, he wears simple informal clothes and makes a point of spending time
in markets or walking along narrow Jakarta lanes to chat to people about problems like
the price of food, housing difficulties, local flooding, and transport.
Polling and media coverage suggests that Jokowi's hands-on style has proved very popular both
in Jakarta and elsewhere across Indonesia.
Lelang Jabatan On April and June 2013, Jokowi created a new
system of bureaucratic recruitment called "lelang jabatan".
In this system, every civil servant has the same opportunity to achieve a certain position
by fulfilling the required qualifications and passing the test.
The test result is announced transparently and the provincial government will place the
qualified civil servant in accordance to their achievement and qualification.
Healthcare program Early after taking office in late 2012 Jokowi
introduced a universal health care program in Jakarta, based on a Healthy Jakarta Card.
The program proved to be very popular.
However, the KJS program also generated controversy because implementation problems quickly became
evident.
The demand for health services from hospitals across Jakarta jumped sharply putting great
pressure on the limited services available.
Demand for health services surged by 70% in the first few months.
The program involved an insurance program provided through the state-owned insurance
company PT Askes Indonesia and a plan to regulate health charges for treatment for over 20,000
services and procedures.
There was confusion over the details of the implementation of the system and long waiting
queues for services caused dissatisfaction.
The long queues even generated a market for middlemen who offered line-waiting services
for up to Rp 150,000.
The various problems led to criticism of Jokowi in the Jakarta regional parliament that he
was promoting a populist, poorly-designed program.
However Jokowi defended the popular KJS program and counseled patience.
Educational program Jokowi launched the "Smart Jakarta Card" on
1 December 2012, in order to help poor students in Jakarta.
This card gives an allowance that can be withdrawn from ATMs in order to buy school needs such
as books and uniforms.
The usage of the card is constantly monitored and is not allowed for consumptive purposes
such as going to the cinema.
Public transportation On 10 October 2013, Jokowi inaugurated the
construction of Jakarta MRT, which previously was delayed for years.
Subsequently, on 16 October 2013, Jokowi also restarted the construction of the green line
of Jakarta Monorail.
Financial reformation After Jokowi took office, the provincial budget
of Jakarta increased significantly from Rp 41 trillion in 2012 to Rp 72 trillion in 2014.
This was achieved through transparency, efficiency, e-catalog, and e-budgetting.
Transparency Jokowi and his vice governor, Basuki, publicized
their monthly salary and the provincial budget to the public.
They also initiated programs that are aimed towards transparency, such as online tax,
e-budgeting, e-purchasing, and cash management system.
Moreover, all meetings and activities that are attended by Jokowi and Basuki were recorded
and uploaded on YouTube.
Revamping street vendors and traditional markets Jokowi regulated the chaotic agglomeration
of street vendors in Pasar Minggu and Pasar Tanah Abang by relocating them to a new building,
as these street vendors were causing horrendous traffic jam.
He also managed to build and renovate five traditional markets in 2013 and four traditional
markets in 2014.
The vendors in these markets are not charged for rent, although they are required to maintain
their kiosk and not to sell their kiosk to someone else.
They are only asked to pay for maintenance, electricity, and water cost.
Flood control In 2013, Joko Widodo initiated dredging and
reservoir normalization projects in order to reduce flood problems.
Three of the most notable projects are the normalization of Pluit Reservoir, Ria Rio
Reservoir, and Pesanggrahan River.
These projects involved the relocation of settlements around the reservoirs, in which
Jokowi used the "lunch diplomacy" tactic to obtain agreement from local populace.
After the inhabitants of these settlements were successfully moved to a new location,
the dredging commenced, and the project was praised by the Prime Minister of the Netherlands
Mark Rutte as successful.
These projects helped to reduce the extent of flood in 2014.
Presidential candidacy Megawati Sukarnoputri had chosen Joko Widodo
to be the presidential candidate of her party.
Widodo and Jusuf Kalla travelled to many parts of Indonesia for his campaign, most notably
West Papua.
His mayorship in Surakarta and his governorship in Jakarta further boosted his popularity
around Indonesia.
Because of his interest in loud music, many musicians around Indonesia, including the
cast of Jalanan, volunteered to create a song titled Salam 2 Jari as part of his campaign.
Also because of his interest in loud music, several international artists — Jason Mraz,
Sting, Bumblefoot and Arkarna — posted their support for him on Twitter and Facebook, tagging
#Jokowi9Juli and in Arkarna's case, #ArkarnaVoteJokowi.
After hearing the Quick Count results of many different polls, Widodo declared victory on
9 July.
However, his rival Prabowo Subianto also declared victory, leaving Indonesian citizens confused.
Jokowi asked his supporters to cancel any celebrations for his victory.
While most of Prabowo's supporters tried to congratulate Jokowi, fighting occurred between
other Prabowo and Jokowi supporters days before the official announcements.
To prevent this from happening, Widodo disallowed the use of his usual off-duty attire, checkered
clothing, and Prabowo's usual attire, white clothing, for his supporters and told them
not to leave their house.
On 22 July, hours before the announcement of the election results, Prabowo withdrew.
A victory for Widodo was expected and realized hours later.
The Commission gave Widodo a close victory of 53.15 percent of the vote, to Prabowo's
46.85 percent, though Prabowo's camp disputed these totals.
After his victory, Widodo stated that, growing up under the authoritarian and corrupt New
Order, he would have never expected someone with a lower-class background to become president.
The New York Times reported him as saying "now, it's quite similar to America, yeah?
There is the American dream, and here we have the Indonesian dream".
Widodo was the first Indonesian president to not be from the military or the political
elite, and the political commentator Salim Said gave the popular view of the politician
as "someone who is our neighbor, who decided to get into politics and run for president".
Awards and honours His awards and honours include the following:
2008: Jokowi was listed by Tempo as one of the 'Top 10 Indonesian Mayors of 2008'.
2011: He was awarded the Bintang Jasa Utama by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
2012: Jokowi received 3rd place of the 2012 World Mayor Prize for "transforming a crime-ridden
city into a regional center for art and culture and an attractive city to tourists.
He was listed as one of "The Leading Global Thinkers of 2013" in Foreign Policy.
In February 2013 he was nominated as the global mayor of the month by the The City Mayors
Foundation based in London.
2014: Jokowi was listed by Fortune as one of the 'The World's 50 Greatest Leaders'
Personal life According to The Economist, Jokowi "has a
penchant for loud rock music" and once owned a bass guitar signed by a member of heavy-metal
band Metallica.
He claims to be a fan of Metallica, Lamb of God, Led Zeppelin and Napalm Death.
Film adaption In June 2013, a film depicting Jokowi's childhood
and youth was released.
Jokowi expressed some objections to the film saying that he felt his life had been a simple
one and was not worthy of being presented as a film.
References
Further reading 1.
Majeed, Rushda.
"The City With a Short Fuse."
Foreign Policy.
September 2012.
2.
Majeed, Rushda.
"Defusing a Volatile City, Igniting Reforms: Joko Widodo and Surakarta, Indonesia, 2005–2011."
Innovations for Successful Societies.
Princeton University.
Published July 2012.