JAKARTA – Profile and Biography of Joko Widodo. Starting as a furniture entrepreneur, he plunged into politics. The concept of “blusukan” by going to the field, led him to become mayor, governor, and president. Jokowi was inaugurated as the 7th President of the Republic of Indonesia at the age of 53. No one expected a simple figure like Jokowi to occupy the highest leadership in Indonesia as the seventh president of Indonesia.
Jokowi was born in Surakarta, Central Java, June 21, 1961, to Noto Mihardjo and Sujiatmi Notomiharjo. Jokowi is the first of four children. Jokowi grew up in a simple family and even moved several times because his residence was evicted. The following is the biography of joko widodo.
Jokowi’s Childhood
Source: Grid.id
Coming from a very simple family made Jokowi feel a difficult and hard life in his childhood. By the time he was in State Elementary School 111 Tirtoyoso, Surakarta, Jokowi had become a porters, umbrella taxis and traders. He did this just to pay for his school fees and daily meals.
At the age of 12, Jokowi decided to work in a timber company as a sawyer. He got this skill from his father, Noto Mihardjo, who also worked as a carpenter.
In his childhood Jokowi also experienced the bitterness of eviction, when his house was evicted three times. After graduating from elementary school, he entered SMP Negeri 1 Surakarta and then continued his studies at SMA Negeri 6 Surakarta. In college, Jokowi was finally accepted into the Forestry Department of Gajah Mada University, Yogyakarta. There he learned very hard about wood, its processing technology and its utilization.
Started a business as a furniture manufacturer
Source: BBC.com
After completing his studies in 1985 Jokowi finally married his idol, Iriana on December 24, 1986 in Solo City which later gave him three children named Gibran Rakabuming, Kaesang Pangarep and Kahiyang Ayu. In the same year, Jokowi also migrated to Aceh to look for work. There he worked at one of the state-owned enterprises, PT Kraft Aceh Paper. But because he did not feel at home, he finally chose to resign and tried to run a timber business in Solo while waiting for the birth of his first child.
Before starting his own business, Jokowi worked at his uncle’s company, CV Roda Jati, Solo. After gaining a lot of experience from there, Jokowi ventured to open his own wood furniture business in 1988 by creating a business entity called CV. Rakabu which was inspired by the name of his first child, Gibran Rakabuming.
Jokowi’s wood business under CV Rakabu experienced ups and downs and even almost went bankrupt. But in 1990, thanks to a loan of 30 million rupiah from his mother, Jokowi then tried to get back on his feet.
After his business began to rise, Jokowi began his journey to travel around Europe, America and the Middle East. As a result, Jokowi successfully became a furniture export entrepreneur.
Plunge into Politics
Source: Metrotempo.co
When Jokowi traveled around Europe to travel his mabel business, he also got inspiration about clean and tidy city planning. Which ultimately made Jokowi want to apply it in his home country, Indonesia:
Mayor of Solo
In 2005, Jokowi ran as a candidate for Mayor of Solo promoted by the National Awakening Party and PDI Perjuangan. Despite his lack of political experience, Jokowi eventually won and became Mayor of Solo.
Jokowi’s victory as Mayor of Solo was his first step towards becoming President of Indonesia. His leadership as Mayor of Solo changed the face of Solo into a comfortable city and relocated merchants without causing riots. Jokowi is also known as a ‘blusukan’ leader, which is often traveling around to see the condition of the city directly.
The results of satisfactory work made Jokowi succeeded in becoming Mayor of Solo for the second time in the next election in 2010. From there Jokowi then began to be recognized by the people because of his simple character and achievements during his tenure as Mayor of Solo.
Governor of DKI Jakarta
His success in leading Solo led former Vice President Jusuf Kalla to ask Jokowi to run for the Governor’s seat.
Having refused, Jokowi then finally accepted and joined the PDI-P Party led by Megawati Soekarno Putri together with the Gerindra Party led by Prabowo Subianto.
Jokowi finally officially ran for Governor of DKI Jakarta in a pair with Basuki Tjahaja Purnama or better known as Ahok. Finally, the second round of elections succeeded in making Jokowi-Ahok win the seat of Governor of DKI Jakarta 2012.
Becoming President of the Republic of Indonesia
In the middle of his reign as Governor of DKI Jakarta, Jokowi again ventured to run as a Presidential Candidate with Jusuf Kalla as Vice President in 2014. Finally, in July 2014, the results of the vote count by the Indonesian KPU declared Jokowi-Jusuf Kalla as the winner in the 2014 Presidential Election with 53.15% or 70,997,833 votes.
After issuing many new policies after becoming President of the Republic of Indonesia, there were many pros and cons from the community. But despite the many controversies regarding President Joko Widodo’s policies, Jokowi is a figure that deserves attention, how not only in less than ten years he managed to reach the top as the number one person in Indonesia.
Running for President again in 2019
In August 2019, Jokowi again made a declaration to return as a candidate for President of the Republic of Indonesia in 2019. Jokowi is paired with a cleric, KH Ma’ruf Amin as Indonesia’s vice presidential candidate in the upcoming 2019 presidential election.
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