Courtesy of Wedding Media Center

This week the nation witnessed both the fairy tale of a child raised by a loving family who looks to live happily ever after with his newlywed wife and the tragedy of another who lost not only her family'€™s love, but also her own life.

While there is no need to draw a comparison between the two contrasting tales, they both received equally extensive publicity. As news commodities, they are selling like hotcakes.

On Thursday, a party was thrown to celebrate the marriage of President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo'€™s eldest son Gibran Rakabuming Raka and his betrothed Selvi Ananda Putri. About 4,000 guests were invited to the reception, which was divided into afternoon and evening shifts, with the latter reserved for VVIPs.

The happy day in Jokowi'€™s hometown of Surakarta in Central Java saw people from all walks of life enjoy the party, which was prepared and organized by Gibran himself. No wonder, because the 27-year-old graduate from Australian and Singaporean universities runs a wedding organizing and catering company.

From a modest three-wheel pedicab (becak) driver to top-notch celebrity singers, the guests flocked to the Graha Saba Buana building, which is owned by Jokowi, a former businessman.

In the evening, the spectacle changed 180 degrees as Vice President Jusuf Kalla, Cabinet ministers, top politicians from all parties and foreign dignitaries turned up. Jokowi'€™s rival in the 2014 presidential election, Prabowo Subianto, was among the distinguished guests.

Indeed, everybody wanted to congratulate the First Family and the new couple, although most were not invited to the party. Well-wishers, however, also included the dozens of victims and parents of victims of past human rights violations who carried a flower festoon in their 400th consecutive rally outside the State Palace in Central Jakarta, to demand the state resolve the atrocities once and for all.

Clad in black, they expressed their hope for Jokowi to fulfill his campaign promise of putting an end to impunity for perpetrators of crimes against humanity.

Despite the preparations for the wedding party, Jokowi refused to take a leave of absence from work. He moved his office to his hometown and ran the government from the sultanate city, although in practice he focused on the special event.

Before leaving Jakarta, however, Jokowi signed two important documents pertaining to his nomination of Army chief Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo as candidate to be the head of the Indonesian Military (TNI) and of former Jakarta governor Sutiyoso as his candidate for the chief post of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN).

There have been no signs of opposition to the President'€™s choices for the two strategic jobs from the House of Representatives, which has set a date to interview the two candidates next week or before the lawmakers go into recess early in July. If everything goes according to plan, the country will have a new TNI chief and BIN chief next month.

Gatot will replace Gen. Moeldoko while Sutiyoso will succeed Marciano Norman '€” all four were wedding guests at the Jokowi family party.

Before the interview, the lawmakers will consult the National Commission on Human Rights and the Corruption Eradication Commission to scrutinize the two candidates'€™ track records. The two will also have to declare their wealth.

The nominations have sparked controversy, however. Jokowi'€™s preference of the Army chief is a break from the reform tradition of rotating the TNI commander post between the three branches of the armed forces. Had Jokowi stuck to the convention he would have proposed Air Force chief Air Marshal Agus Supriatna.

Meanwhile, the public query into Sutiyoso'€™s nomination lies with his lack of exposure to intelligence affairs, not to mention the fact that he is 70 years old. A House politician said Sutiyoso would spend a lot of time catching up with the latest developments in the intelligence world, which he said was risky.

Many also believe Sutiyoso'€™s candidacy is no more than a reward for his support of Jokowi'€™s presidential bid. Sutiyoso chairs the Indonesian Justice and Unity Party, the only member of the ruling coalition that has not yet received a post in the government.

Earlier on Wednesday, the nation was shocked by the police'€™s finding of the remains of a little girl named Engeline in the backyard of her home in Denpasar, Bali, after she had been missing for 23 days. The search for the adopted daughter of Margriet Megawe had captured the government'€™s attention as was apparent from the visit of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Minister Yuddy Chrisnandi and Women'€™s Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Yohana Yembise to Engeline'€™s house last week.

Following the discovery, the police arrested Agustinus Tai Hamdamai, a domestic worker formerly employed by Engeline'€™s adoptive mother and immediately named him a suspect. An autopsy confirmed the physical violence Engeline had suffered, but showed no indication of sexual violence, although the police say that during a reconstruction of the crime Agus reportedly admitted committing rape.

The case shows that home is sometimes not as sweet as many think. Domestic violence is punishable with a jail sentence, but sadly family members and the community seem reluctant to get the law enforced. Engeline simply looked like nobody'€™s child.

'€” Dwi Atmanta

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