Before last Friday, Yohanes “Joni” Gama was unknown and living life as an ordinary local boy in a remote village in the East Nusa Tenggara regency of Belu, which is much closer to the neighboring Timor Leste capital of Dili than Jakarta.

However, the whole nation was suddenly talking about the 14-year-old student after he climbed to the top of a 12-meter flag pole to untangle its rope during a ceremony to mark the 73rd anniversary of independence.

“I was in a medical tent during the ceremony because of a stomachache. And then I heard the [Belu] deputy regent shout ‘who can go up there and fix it?’, so I rushed to climb it,” the farmer’s son recalled on Saturday.

“I was not scared at all [about climbing the flag pole]. I was more scared that the flag wouldn’t fly.”

Climbing is a piece of cake for Joni as he loves to scale trees in his village, such as coconut and pinang trees, the trunk of which is widely used as a pole in traditional competitions held to mark Independence Day.

The rest is history, with various media outlets, especially digital-based, making him a media darling after his fearless act went viral on Friday. The next day he received an invitation from the government to attend the colorful opening ceremony of the 18th Asian Games at the Gelora Bung Karno (GBK) sports complex. And, of course, praise is pouring in for him.

There was a strong reason for inviting Joni to the Games’ opening ceremony.

The government believed that sharing the story about little Joni would boost the morale of Indonesian athletes, who are gunning to finish among the top 10 in the sporting event.

“We want our athletes to learn from Joni, who comes from a remote area but has shown enormous courage,” Gatot Dewabroto, the Youth and Sports Affairs Ministry’s secretary-general, told The Jakarta Post.

On Saturday afternoon, after a tiring trip from his village, Joni was invited for lunch with Youth and Sports Minister Imam Nahrawi at the latter’s office in Senayan, near the GBK stadium. Dressed in his school uniform, even though it was a Saturday, Joni was accompanied by his parents.

State electricity company PLN has promised to cover Joni’s education costs until he finishes higher education and to renovate his modest home. A PLN official said the pledge would be realized no later than Oct. 28, when Indonesia commemorates Youth Pledge Day.

“We are glad and proud that we can meet with our hero [Joni] today and I would like to give thanks for one of our state-firms [PLN], who will give a scholarship to Joni until college,” Nahrawi said.

Joni, who idolizes national midfielder Evan Dimas, hopes that what he did will inspire children across the country to love this nation and have courage.

“[….] To study hard, to know no fear and to love our homeland,” he said with a toothy smile.

Joni is among the millions of Indonesians who are pinning their hopes on the 938 national athletes competing in the Games to win as many medals as possible and lift the nation’s pride.

Indonesia has set an ambitious target of securing at least 16 gold medals to finish 10th in the Games’ medals tally. The host expects the medals to come from 17 sports, which include badminton, wushu, taekwondo and traditional martial arts pencak silat.

Indonesia ranked 17th in the previous Games with a haul of four golds, five silvers and 11 bronzes.

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