Presiden Jokowi Jalan Kaki ke Lokasi HUT TNI jadi Perhatian Dunia
Walk this Way: Indonesia Traffic Jam Forces President Out of Car
Editor : Ismail Gani
Translator : Novita Cahyadi
KEMACETAN luar biasa di Indonesia menjadi perhatian dunia pada Kamis setelah Presiden RI Joko Widodo terpaksa berjalan kaki dua kilometer di bawah panas terik untuk menghadiri peringatan HUT TNI ke-72 di Cilegon, Banten.
Kemacetan lalu lintas di mata media asing merupakan akibat dari inefisiensi birokrasi di Indonesia.
Padatnya warga yang ingin menyaksikan HUT TNI memaksa Presiden Jokowi harus berjalan lebih dari dua kilometer untuk menghadiri hari jadi TNI.
Presiden Jokowi didampingi petinggi militer dan polisi harus berjalan kaki menuju lokasi parade militer di Cilegon, kota pelabuhan berjarak 2,5 jam perjalanan darat dari Jakarta.
Setelah menunggu 30 menit di tengah kemacetan, "sang presiden kemudian memutuskan keluar dari mobilnya dan kemudian berjalan kaki," kata Wakil Komandan Grup A Paspampres Letkol (Mar) Ili Dasili dalam pernyataan resmi dari kantor kepresidenan yang dikutip AFP.
Kapolri Jenderal Tito Karnavian, yang juga terjebak dalam kemacetan, kemudian mendampingi presiden.
Tayangan langsung televisi memperlihatkan presiden berjalan dengan sejumlah anggota Paspampres sementara warga berdiri di pinggir jalan seraya menyapa presiden.
Presiden Jokowi jalan kaki pun menjadi sorotan para pengguna media sosial, yang mempertanyakan mengapa
pemimpin ekonomi terbesar di Asia Tenggara dipaksa untuk berjalan ke acara tersebut.
"Bagaimana presiden bisa berjalan sejauh dua kilometer ke lokasi ulang tahun militer, mengapa mereka tidak memberinya kesempatan mengosongkan jalan atau membawanya ke helikopter?" tulis pengguna Twitter @Pujithegooners yang dilansir MailOnline.
INDONESIA'S notorious traffic congestion was on display for the world Thursday after the country's president was forced to walk two kilometres through the scorching heat to attend a military parade.
Graft-ridden Indonesia is home to one of Asia's most inefficient bureaucracies and gridlock plagues many of the archipelago's largest towns.
The country's traffic nightmares were aptly illustrated when President Joko Widodo had to walk more than two kilometres to attend a ceremony marking the 72nd anniversary of the Indonesian military's founding.
Widodo and senior government officials were held up by gridlock as they approached the military parade in Cilegon, a port city about two-and-a-half hours drive from the capital Jakarta, the presidential palace said.
After a 30-minute wait, "the president then decided from inside the car that he would walk," Widodo's guard Ili Dasili said in a statement.
National police chief Tito Karnavian, who was also stuck in the jam, joined the president.
Video footage shows the president walking with a phalanx of security personnel while spectators yell and chant his name.
Widodo's unorthodox entrance wasn't lost on social media users, who questioned why the leader of Southeast Asia's largest economy was compelled to walk to the event.
"How come the president walked for two kilometres to the military anniversary location, why didn't they give him the privilege of vacating the road or taking him in a helicopter?" Twitter user @Pujithegooners wrote.
