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Jakarta street party as Jokowi fever hits city

Sydney Morning Herald - October 20, 2014

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Michael Bachelard, Jakarta – The iconic Hotel Indonesia Traffic Circle – usually aptly named – in central Jakarta, became the country's Party Circle on Monday afternoon as Joko Widodo fever hit the city.

Food vendors lined the street offering free Indonesian treats, the sounds of euphonium marching bands clashed with the beat-heavy pop music known as dangdut and waves of cheers, for no apparent reason, coursed through the sweltering crowd.

Ondel ondel – giant papier mache figures – towered above the crowd and, of course the phone system crashed as Indonesia's social-media obsessed population tried to share the profundity of their day.

But if anyone imagined that the day of Jokowi's inauguration would run on time, they did not know him very well. The man who became famous during his campaign appearances for keeping people waiting for hours, had not magically transformed into a well-oiled machine in the two hours since he officially became president.

To the crowd, though, it did not seem to matter. They waited patiently, if loudly, cramming every surface that would give them some elevation from the street to allow them to catch a glimpse of their idol as he paraded past.

This was the first street ceremony Indonesia had put on for a new president – the swearings in of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in both 2004 and 2009 were notably more sedate, according to old hands.

"It was quiet, business went on as usual," dancer and poet Putri Minangsari recalled on Twitter. "This kind of euphoria has never happened before with any other president."

And as with euphoria, so with hope. Jokowi comes to the palace – late, slowly, and loudly perhaps – with the enormous expectations of the mass of Indonesia's people snapping at his heels.

Everyone from human rights activists and environmentalists to investment bankers is hoping that their particular issue will get the attention of the president under a new, more decisive, regime. Perhaps, in the way of politics, from here the only way is down.

But on the streets of Jakarta on the day of Jokowi's inauguration, nobody was thinking about that. All they knew was that Jokowi, someone like them, was in the palace, and for the moment at least, all was right with the world.

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/world/jakarta-street-party-as-jokowi-fever-hits-city-20141020-118y5s.html.