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any perceive one of Governor Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo'€™s main accomplishments as the installation of Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama as his deputy.

Unlike his predecessors, Ahok shares the same stage and spotlight as the governor. While people went crazy over Jokowi singing with British metal band Arkarna, a hilarious dangdut performance by Ahok attracted thousands of hits on YouTube.

'€œAhok has made interesting breakthroughs and brave statements. The public likes his bold character. Although he may be seen as temperamental, his approach is effective in creating some order in the city,'€ SCTV'€™s senior news anchor, Retno Pinasti, told The Jakarta Post.

Ahok has acquired a reputation for his no-nonsense approach, with which he was able to silence a room full of protesters shouting and banging tables and chairs during a meeting at City Hall.

Taking his pet project of bureaucratic transparency to its extreme, Ahok posts online videos of budget meetings and the work of his subordinates.

His blunt approach, however, has invited detractors.

He angered street vendors in Tanah Abang Market in Central Jakarta when he threatened to file a lawsuit against them if they opposed the city'€™s plan to relocate them. He also enraged city councilor Abraham Lunggana, alias Haji Lulung, whom he accused of backing the street vendors.

He also upset the squatters at Pluit reservoir in North Jakarta when they demanded free housing, saying that only communists made such demands.

'€œThose residents who were going to be relocated refused to meet Ahok because of his comments; they said they would only talk with Jokowi,'€ Wardah Hafidz, a campaigner with the Urban Poor Consortium (UPC), said.

But Ahok was not born with these traits.

Born as the first of four children in Manggar, East Belitung, on June 29, 1966, Basuki was raised in a wealthy, altruistic, Christian family of Chinese descent. He was no stranger to Jakarta as he graduated from a high school in the city and gained a bachelor'€™s degree in geology from Trisakti University. He later received a master'€™s degree in finance from the Prasetiya Mulya Institute.

On his personal website, Basuki said the reason he joined politics was to fight corrupt bureaucrats who had made it difficult for him to set up a quartz sand company. Initially, he wanted to give up and move abroad but his father, Kim Nam, asked him to stay and told him a Chinese proverb, which said that poor people should not fight the rich and that the rich should not fight the authorities.

With his late father'€™s words in mind, Ahok became a councilor in East Belitung regency in 2004 and a year later, won the regency election.

In 2009, Ahok secured a seat in the House of Representatives for the Golkar Party and was assigned to Commission II overseeing domestic governance and regional autonomy.

Unlike other public figures who tried to appear humble, Ahok did not hesitate to show the public his good fortune, saying that he had nothing to hide.

Several Jakarta journalists were recently given a glimpse of his family and financial holdings, which comprise a quartz sand factory, a private beach and several substantial portions of land in East Belitung.

'€œI inherited three islands from my late father, who was a tin and sand miner, but they are registered under my mother'€™s name,'€ he said.

Ahok said it was the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party that approached him to pair up with Jokowi to contest the 2012 gubernatorial election in Jakarta. '€œThey said it would be okay if Jokowi and I did not win, as long as the public knew the party had endorsed good politicians,'€ he said.