When he arrived in Malang almost three decades ago, Fahmi Saguanto was a nobody. Hailing from Sumenep in Madura, he only owned a religious teacher training college certificate. But in Malang, the second largest city in East Java, he did not teach. Instead, he worked iat the market stand of his uncle, Suhudi, in Pasar Besar. His work was to polish second-hand military boots to look like new, so that they could be sold at a higher price.

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