By Jibrin Baba Ndace
Jakarta, Indonesia
The committee of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s inauguration party has commended the National Police and the Indonesian Military (TNI) for their success in securing Jokowi’s inauguration and the “people’s party” held after the ceremony on October 20, when thousands of people took to the streets to cheer the new President.
More than 45,000 turned up after the inauguration on Monday for the street party and an evening music concert dedicated to Jokowi and Vice President Jusuf Kalla.
“We appreciate the police and soldiers who gave their support for the event. In general, tight security measures enabled us to carry out each step of the celebration smoothly,” Dono Prasetyo from Seknas Jokowi, one of the volunteer groups that organised the event, said on Wednesday.
On inauguration day, the police and TNI dispatched a joint team of 24,815 personnel to secure the House of Representatives compound, the Presidential Palace and Jakarta’s main thoroughfares between Semanggi and the National Monument (Monas), where the celebrations took place.
One of the most challenging tasks for the security personnel was to ensure the safety of Jokowi and Kalla when they rode in a horse-drawn carriage through a sea of revelers during a parade from the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle to Monas.
During the celebration, the Presidential Security Detail (Paspampres) at times had a hard job guarding the carriage as Jokowi and Kalla occasionally tried to shake the hands of their supporters.
The committee also praised revelers for an incident-free celebration.
“Visitors stood in line to take free food and enter the concert venue at Monas. No violent assaults or riots occurred. However, some people dumped trash on the ground. Thankfully, we had a team tasked to clean up the venue,” one of the committee members, Iwan Dwi Laksono, said.
Meanwhile, Jakarta Police Chief Inspector, Gen. Unggung Cahyono, has said that the success of President Jokowi’s inauguration ceremony was the result of joint police-military security measures, as well as citizens’ cooperation.
“First, we had the strong presence of our personnel. Second, people were easy to handle,” he said.