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SBY, Ani meet Twitter, Instagram followers
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and First Lady Ani Yudhoyono held a kopdar meeting with 20 of their Twitter and Instagram followers at the Gedung Agung State Palace in Yogyakarta on Thursday
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resident Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and First Lady Ani Yudhoyono held a kopdar meeting with 20 of their Twitter and Instagram followers at the Gedung Agung State Palace in Yogyakarta on Thursday.
Kopdar, an abbreviation of kopi darat, is a common term used by Indonesian radio station communities, meaning to meet up in person.
Ani said that of the 20 participants, 15 were selected from the followers of the President's Twitter account while the remaining five were selected from the followers of her Instagram account.
'It was not me who selected them. A team helped us select them because there were thousands of them. I thank followers who have so far followed the President, as well as my Instagram,' Ani said.
There are 5.7 million followers of Yudhoyono's official twitter account @SBYudhoyono, while Ani has more than 600,000 Instagram followers.
The kopdar was held as a closed-door meeting before the President and his entourage continued their trip to the Military Academy in Magelang, Central Java.
On Oct. 10, 2014, Yudhoyono announced a competition on his official Twitter account to select Twitter users to meet him and the First Lady in person in Yogyakarta.
The administrator of the account later explained that the competition required Twitter users to post their opinions regarding the 10 years of Yudhoyono's administration, using the hashtag #KopdarPamitan.
Pamitan, which means farewell, probably referred to the end of Yu-dhoyono's presidential term on Oct. 20.
During the competition, many of the winners shared their appreciation of and admiration for Yudhoyono's achievements.
The @IstanaRakyat Twitter account, which is run by State Palace staffers, posted a picture of the 20 competition winners, mostly young people, in front of the Gedung Agung State Palace.
One of them was Indonesian racing driver Alexandra Asmasoebrata, who tweeted: 'On National Sports Day 2005 I was granted a national athletes' honor, put around my neck directly by President SBY. Thank you for your attention to athletes.'
Speaking after the meeting on Thursday, Alexandra said she was pleased to have been able to attend the meeting. 'I am proud to have been selected and that I could meet the President in person,' she said.
Fajar Febriyanto, the owner of account @fajar_briyant, tweeted dozens of messages of appreciation to Yudhoyono that resulted in him being invited to the meeting.
In his tweets, Fajar praised Yu-dhoyono's efforts to build a close relationship with the Indonesian people by opening up his house during the Islamic celebration of Idul Fitri, holding dialogues and giving public lectures.
'Building the state together with the people are the right words [to describe] Mr. @SBYudhoyono's administration over the last 10 years,' Fajar said in one of his tweets.
However, avid Twitter user@ndorokakung criticized the competition for creating a space for positive feedback only.
He tweeted: 'If really a gentleman, #KopdarPamitan should have given the same room to both positive and negative opinions. What about it [...] gentleman?'
Meanwhile, netizens also created the hashtag #BadLegacySBY, which was used by critics of Yudhoyono's 10-year administration. Activist Fadjroel Rachman, for example, used both hashtags when he tweeted that Yudhoyono was the president of indirect elections.
