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similarity shared by incumbent Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo and his running mate, retired general Nachrowi Ramli, is that they both paved their respective careers for decades before turning to politics.

Having served the administration for more than three decades, Fauzi, 64, stepped into the 2007 gubernatorial race, seeking to be the successor of the previous governor Sutiyoso, whom he served as deputy.

Even before the 2007 election, Fauzi already paved his political career, earning support from several political parties on the City Council — which at that time had the authority to select the governor — to compete against Sutiyoso in 2002, but ended up being elected as Sutiyoso’s deputy.

In 2007, Fauzi, a long-time activist of the Golkar Party and a Betawi community leader, won the election with running mate Prijanto in the city’s first ever gubernatorial election. They were nominated by a coalition of 13 political parties, including the heavyweights: the Democratic Party, Golkar and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

This year, Fauzi only has the backing of a few political parties, but one of them is the largest in city.

Fauzi and Nachrowi are backed by a coalition group led by the Democratic Party, the largest faction at the City Council with 32 out of the 94 seats, the People’s Conscience Party (Hanura) and the Prosperous Peace Party (PDS) with four seats each, the National Awakening Party (PKB) with one seat and three non-parliamentary parties.

Fauzi is now a member of the Democratic Party advisory board, which is chaired by the party’s chief patron, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

Prior to his candidacy announcement, Fauzi had chosen to keep silent of his reelection run, telling journalists that he was “focusing on the job at hand.”

He preferred to stay away from public debates involving other hopefuls eager to blast him over the administration’s chronic problems of flooding, terrible traffic, poverty and a lack of access to education and health services.

Only on the day of his candidacy registration at the Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPU Jakarta) did the public learn he was to run with Nachrowi. His supporters say Fauzi is an experienced bureaucrat and a thoughtful politician, but his critics dismiss him as bad-tempered, and not open to criticism.

A survey released by Indo Barometer earlier this year said that Fauzi is not a popular figure among the capital’s civil servants, a large proportion of whom are employed by the Jakarta administration.

Growing up in upper-class Menteng, Central Jakarta, Fauzi became a low-paid civil servant after attaining an undergraduate degree in
architecture in Germany.

His career skyrocketed after he filled a post as head of the Jakarta Tourism Agency, a time when he wrote several analyses of the country’s bubble economy. His analyses impressed the newly elected Sutiyoso, who in 1998 then asked Fauzi to be city secretary, a role overseeing the city’s bureaucracy.

With both bureaucracy and political years under his belt, Fauzi is optimistic about his reelection bid. “I am not a new guy. I know Jakarta and its problems; I was born here.”

On Fauzi’s side is fellow Democratic Party cadre Nachrowi, who has largely remained silent during public events, giving the main stage and the spot light to Fauzi.

Nachrowi secured the top seat in the Democratic Party’s Jakarta chapter last year, a success which he admitted was partly due to his long-time friendship with party founder and patron Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who was his classmate at the Military Academy.

Prior to his retirement from the military in 2008, Nachrowi was elected chair of Bamus Betawi, which shelters more than 100 Betawi-based organizations in Greater Jakarta.

Nachrowi, who retired a major general, found military success by staying below the radar. He was the head of the National Encryption Body (Lemsaneg) from 2002 to 2008, responsible for the implementation of the National Encryption System, which serves as the backbone for the country’s exchange of secret information from and to state institutions.

Nachrowi was born in Jakarta and was raised by a single mother following his father’s death before his 14th birthday.

Amid the economic recession and political turmoil following the 1965 attempted coup, the young Nachrowi helped his mother make ends meet by selling rice and eggs while also participating in the massive
anti-communist movement.

After graduating from the Military Academy in 1973, Nachrowi started his career as an officer in the Army’s encryption agency in Jakarta before he was assigned – five years later – to study cryptography science at the National Encryption Academy. In 1984, Nachrowi was recruited by Lemsaneg and was stationed with the Foreign Ministry’s Encryption Center, which allowed him to learn about diplomacy and international politics.

Two years later, Nachrowi was posted as an attache with the Indonesian Embassy in Cairo before returning to Indonesia in 1992 and holding various executive positions in Lemsaneg.