Basuki Tjahaja Purnama Net Worth

Background and career

Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (simplified Chinese: 钟万学; traditional Chinese: 鐘萬學; pinyin: Zhōng Wànxué, Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: Chûng Van-ho̍k; born 29 June 1966) is an Indonesian businessman and former politician who served as the former governor of Jakarta. He is colloquially known by his Hakka Chinese name, Ahok (Chinese: 阿學). He was the first ethnic Chinese governor of Jakarta and the first non-Austronesian governor of Jakarta and also of the Protestant faith, following Henk Ngantung, who was the sole Catholic and Austronesian Minahasan governor to hold office from 1964–65.

Ahok was a legislator in the Indonesian People's Representative Council (DPR) and Regent of East Belitung. He was elected to the House of Representatives for the 2009–2014 term but resigned in 2012 to run for the deputy governorship of Jakarta, to which he was elected. In November 2014, he became governor of Jakarta, as his predecessor Joko Widodo had become president. Ahead of the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election, Ahok's political rivals aligned themselves with Islamic extremists to exploit religious and racial intolerance, resulting in Ahok being accused of blasphemy in October 2016. He then lost the election to former Minister of Education and Culture Anies Baswedan and was imprisoned for blasphemy.