A city-run social institution '€” Bina Insan Bangun Daya '€” in Cipayung, East Jakarta, welcomed hundreds of senior citizens to celebrate the National Day for the Elderly on Wednesday.

The event was scheduled to start at 11 a.m. but attendees showed their enthusiasm by showing up an hour earlier.

At around 10:20 a.m. a dangdut singer went on stage, attracting dozens of the participants to dance around in front of the stage or just clap their hands.

'€œI like dangdut, but I'€™m too tired to dance,'€ Sumiyati, 76, told The Jakarta Post.

She said the trip from her house in Koja, North Jakarta, to the social institution took two hours by car due to traffic congestion. However, she said she and her friends from Koja had enjoyed the event.

The Jakarta administration'€™s Social Affairs Agency held the event as a part of the 18th National Day for the Elderly, which actually fell on May 29.

The event was opened by a performance from 50 people, ranging from 60 to 80 years old, playing two songs with the angklung traditional musical instrument to the crowd'€™s applause.

The excitement of the attendees heated up when acting Jakarta governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama arrived as an honored guest, with a number of people coming to the front to take pictures of Ahok.

'€œI'€™m happy to be here. If I stay at home I can get stressed by unimportant thoughts,'€ E. Sugiono said.

The 66-year-old said an NGO specializing in elderly care, Pusaka, had rented a public minivan to bring him and his 13 friends from Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta.

He said he was grateful for the help from the NGO because going from one place to another with public transportation in the capital could be very tiring for older people.

'€œMy favorite mode of public transportation is Transjakarta because it is air-conditioned but cheap,'€ he said.

However, even though he acknowledged that life in the capital could be taxing, he said he preferred living here with his four children instead of returning to his hometown in Purworejo, Central Java, where he had no relatives.

Moyowati, 63, who has lived in Jakarta for most of her life, shared Sugiono'€™s view that moving from one place to another in the city was challenging for senior citizens.

She said she had to change public transportation four times if she wanted to go from her place in Sunter, North Jakarta, to her sister'€™s in Pondok Labu, South Jakarta.

'€œHowever, I have lived in Jakarta for 40 years and I'€™m used to it. Besides that, young people always give me seats on crowded public transport,'€ she said

Ahok said in his opening speech that he and the city administration had a number of plans to make Jakarta friendlier for senior citizens.

'€œI do not want to hear that the city'€™s funds allocated to take care of the elderly are embezzled,'€ he said.

He said he was planning to buy vacant land in Jakarta and renovate it as a park for senior citizens to gather.

He added that the city administration also planned to establish more nursing homes and social institutions in the near future.

He also suggested that anyone who needed a walking stick or a wheelchair but could not afford them should inform him and said he was ready to use his own money if the city administration did not have allocated funds for it.

'€œI'€™m also looking into the possibility to provide free transportation for elderly people, or maybe make a new policy so senior citizens do not have to pay if they take public transportation,'€ he said. (idb)

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