Badrul Kamal

Badrul Kamal was born in Bogor, West Java, on 20 December 1945, to Kyai Haji Jahja Sudja'i and Siti Djuariah. He grew up in a religious family: his father was an Islamic scholar in their village, although he chose not to send his son to a pesantren boarding school. Badrul attended a Sekolah Rakyat primary school, then SMP Negeri 1 Bogor and SMA Negeri 1 Bogor.

As a teenager he was active in youth organisations. From 1966 to 1970 he studied public administration at the Akademi Pemerintahan Dalam Negeri (Academy of Home Affairs), and he later completed a master's degree at the Institut Ilmu Pemerintahan. As a student he was active in the Kesatuan Aksi Pemuda dan Pelajar Indonesia (KAPPI) in Bogor, which made his name known as far as Jakarta.

Badrul began his career as a civil servant in 1970 in Cigudeg, Bogor Regency, and became camat (district head) of Cigudeg in 1972 before moving to Ciawi. In 1982 he was made head of the economics division of the Bogor Regency regional planning agency (Bappeda), later heading its development division and becoming Bappeda secretary in 1988.

In 1991 he became Assistant II to the Bogor Regency government, and from 1991 to 1993 he was acting head of the regency's public works department. In 1994 he became acting regional secretary of Bogor Regency, the highest post of his bureaucratic career. In October 1997 he was appointed the sixth administrative mayor of Depok.

When Depok was raised to the status of an autonomous city on 27 April 1999, Badrul became its acting mayor. In 2000 the Depok city council chose him and Yus Ruswandi as the city's first mayor and deputy mayor, with 33 of the 45 council votes, and they were sworn in on 15 March 2000. Their stated vision was of Depok as a religious and environmentally minded city of education, housing, trade and services. He brought the city's universities, including Universitas Indonesia, Universitas Gunadarma and UPN Veteran Jakarta, into partnership with the city government, cleared land for new road links to attract investment, and delegated powers to city departments to simplify the bureaucracy. The city's own revenue grew during his term. His administration offered free education to students from poor families, health support for lower income residents and unsecured credit for small businesses, and began building the Depok regional general hospital in 2004.

In the 2005 direct mayoral election he ran with Syihabuddin Ahmad, backed by a coalition including Golkar, PDI-P and PKB. The local election commission declared Nur Mahmudi Ismail and Yuyun Wirasaputra the winners. Badrul challenged the result and the West Java High Court ruled in his favour, but on 16 December 2005 the Supreme Court granted the commission's request for review and annulled his victory, and in 2006 the Constitutional Court reached the same result. He stood again in 2010 with Agus Supriyanto and lost to Nur Mahmudi Ismail; in November 2010 the Constitutional Court declined to accept his challenge.

Badrul Kamal married Yulisda, who came from Sukabumi in West Java. They had three children: Erlien Verliana Yudha, Erlan Erlangga Komara and Elva Adhyaksani Gumelar. He was widely known by his initials, BK.

Badrul Kamal died on Monday 9 November 2026 at Persahabatan General Hospital (RSUP Persahabatan) in East Jakarta, aged 80. His son-in-law, Hilman, told JurnalDepok that he had been ill and receiving treatment at the hospital, and gave the time of death as 18.53 Western Indonesian Time. He was survived by his wife, a son and two daughters.

The Depok city government announced his death on its official Instagram account, and the current mayor, Supian Suri, paid tribute to him as the man who laid the foundations of the city's development. His body was taken to the family home in Ciawi, Bogor, and burial was planned for the morning of 10 November in the family cemetery at Cikereteg, Bogor.

As the last administrative mayor and the first mayor of autonomous Depok, Badrul Kamal led the city through its formative years and is remembered there as the Bapak Pembangunan Kota Depok, the Father of Depok's Development. His long legal fight over the 2005 election, which passed through the high court, the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court, became a landmark case in Indonesia's early experience of direct regional elections.