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TEHRAN, Apr 14 -When Indonesian President Joko Widodo was elected five years ago, the former furniture salesman seemed to offer a clean break from the military and political elite that had clung to power since the fall of strongman ruler Suharto in 1998.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) -Now, Widodo, 57, is running on his own record for a second term in Wednesday’s election, with a comfortable lead in most opinion polls over his rival, former general Prabowo Subianto.
(GRAPHIC: Indonesia election by the numbers - tmsnrt.rs/2V4DCqq)
With his easy smile and signature “blusukan”, or spur of the moment neighborhood walkabouts, he came to power on a wave of popular support for the clean, can-do image he cultivated as a small-city mayor, and then as governor of the capital Jakarta.
Still, during his political rise, Widodo, a moderate Muslim from Solo in Central Java, has had to fend off smear campaigns suggesting he is anti-Islam, a communist or in debt to China, all damaging accusations in the Muslim-majority country.
On Sunday, just days ahead of the election, Widodo made a pilgrimage to Islam’s holiest site, Mecca in Saudi Arabia, a visit many Indonesians see as aimed at underlining that he is a devout Muslim.
As president he was saddled with high expectations that he could fix a host of enduring issues in the sprawling archipelago, from tackling past human rights abuses to rooting out pervasive graft.
(GRAPHIC: Presidenti Joko Widodo's achievements - tmsnrt.rs/2CRgHYC)
Jokowi, as he is popularly known among Indonesians, also inherited an economy coming off a commodities boom, and faced an obstructive parliament and vested interests opposed to reform and transparency.
But he methodically stitched together a majority in parliament, and while unable to deliver on an economic growth target of 7 percent, he led a record infrastructure push to build ports, roads and airports.
Niken Satyawati, a family friend who has co-written a book on the president, said Widodo had sought to extend the clean governance he pursued as mayor of Solo to the national stage.
“He was an ordinary person. And he still is,” she said, describing his weakness as a desire to accommodate the wishes of too many people.
Widodo came from humble beginnings. His father ran a small timber business and his childhood home was a riverside shack in the city of Solo.
He was the first in his family to attend university and after graduating in forestry eventually set up a successful furniture business.
Source: Reuters
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