Hope, says Choel Mallarangeng, 44, is a very powerful emotion. He should know, for he helps his clients to project hope and inspire the nation given that they are some of the most powerful politicians in the country.

Seated in his spacious office at Jl. Proklamasi Raya, Choel is cool, calm and collected despite personally overseeing a dozen or so ongoing political campaigns simultaneously. The youngest of the Mallarangeng brothers, he is fully aware of the weight of history and expectation on his shoulders.

He comes from a long line of politicians – both his great-grandfather and grandfather served in government. His grandfather was the first Javanese bupati (regent) in the country while his father and uncles were all in government. His eldest brother, Andi, is currently Youth and Sports minister while his other brother, Rizal, runs the Freedom Institute, which is dedicated to promoting democracy and freedom. Both brothers have political science degrees but Choel decided to follow a different path, pursuing an MBA instead.

Choel, who is chief executive officer of Fox Indonesia, is a one-man industry when it comes to strategic and political consulting. Fox was the brains behind President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s runaway win in the last elections; it also helped Aburizal Bakrie secure the Golkar chairmanship and Hatta Rajasa to win the elections to head the National Mandate Party.

She has stolen
My breath
I have stolen
Her scent
Deal is not bad
I am still fragrant
In my earthly shell
She is all aflame
In my breaths' gown
(Deal, Romania, 2008)

That is not the kind of missive you would normally expect to see penned by a serving ambassador. But then part-time poet and Pakistan Ambassador to Indonesia Sanaullah, 57, is no ordinary diplomat. A visit to his airy, high-ceilinged official residence in Mega Kuningan, Central Jakarta, will also show that quite apart from his creative writing, Sanaullah could probably make a living as a sculptor or painter.

Sanaullah’s official reception room is festooned with paintings and sculptures that he has produced. Many of the latter could fit into the palm of one’s hand, and seem more like caricatures that retain their brownish-grey, unpainted hue, but are nonetheless imbued with immense empathy for humanity in all its guises.

While Sanaullah can plan ahead to paint or sculpt in his spare time at weekends, writing is a different matter altogether: “Sometimes a single word in a text or a fleeting moment like a child’s smile can be the inspiration for a poem – you never know – but you have to write it down straight away or risk losing it,” he says.

Sitting at the Regal Bar & Lounge at Hotel Gran Mahakam, South Jakarta, Maria Thomet is nervous but mostly excited at the idea of holding her first solo exhibition, titled Potent Charm, here in Jakarta.

A portraitist, Thomet tends to capture the profile and personality of her subject through painting, sculpture or a photograph. In the words of Potent Charm curator Kadek Krishna Adidharma, who is also a personal friend of Maria’s, her portfolio can be defined as “abstract impressionist portraiture,” a style in which the artist projects her own emotions and ideas of the subject onto the canvas.

“I don't want to speculate too much; I just hope people like it,” says Maria. “It's very difficult to enter the art scene because you have to make a name for yourself. I'm not famous yet, but I do hope I can establish myself.”