TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
No festivities or large crowds allowed for Jokowi's inauguration
A street parade planned by Jokowi's supporters and the regular car-free day event on Sunday have been canceled.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and Vice President Jusuf Kalla ride a horse carriage and greet the large crowd after their inauguration on Oct. 20, 2014. (JP/Ricky Yudhistira)
P
resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo appears to be shying away from the public amid the recent turmoil engulfing the country as the incumbent has requested that his presidential inauguration on Sunday be carried out with a simple ceremony, unlike the festive celebration observed five years ago, during which hundreds of thousands took to the streets to parade for him.
Jokowi informed reporters of his request on Wednesday at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta after meeting with People’s Consultative Assembly leaders to talk about his swearing-in ceremony alongside vice president-elect Ma’ruf Amin on Sunday afternoon.
“I have also addressed that the ceremony and celebration of the inauguration be conducted simply, although without reducing the solemnity of the event,” Jokowi said.
Canceled parade
Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko also asked for Jokowi’s campaign volunteers, who were reportedly planning to hold a cultural carnival that was expected to attract a large number of people, to accept the President’s request for a simpler ceremony.
“The President wants the event requested by [volunteers] not to be held excessively. Therefore, there needs not be events like I mentioned before, the carnival and others,” he said. "The President wants to work soon, [with] all the challenges facing [him] that he wants to directly work like people expect him to do."
Budi Arie Setiadi, the chairman of Projo – a volunteer group supporting Jokowi – said that the group would cancel its planned Way Kambas elephant parade with a heavy heart knowing that Jokowi would have to get back to back to work as “there were many problems in the country needing to be solved quickly and correctly”.
