'President! President!' As Soon As Anies Baswedan Was Shouted At After The Lecture At The UGM Campus Mosque

DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan (Photo: IST)

JAKARTA - DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan received shouts of 'president!' shortly after giving the Tarawih prayer lecture at the UGM Campus Mosque on Thursday, April 7 evening.

The call was shouted repeatedly by the congregation of the mosque on campus who is also Anies' alma mater. This can be seen from various videos circulating on social media.

One of the videos was shared by the former Minister of Youth and Sports, Roy Suryo via the Twitter account @KRMTRoySuryo2. In the video, Anies was shouted 'President!' while still in the pulpit after filling the lecture until he came out of the mosque.

Along with the shouts, Anies was surrounded by congregants who wanted to shake Anies' hands and capture photos and videos of Anies' presence via their respective cell phones. Anies also had difficulty getting out of the mosque because of the dense congregation that surrounded him.

At the UGM Campus Mosque, Anies talked about a moment he remembered when he was a student at UGM. For Anies, UGM is not only a place for him to study to get a bachelor's degree.

"It's a lot of experience. For me, (University) Gadjah Mada is not just a place to study because my childhood was on this campus. My house is only 500 meters north of campus. My elementary school is Experiment 2 Elementary School," Anies said in a Youtube broadcast of the Campus Mosque UGM, quoted on Friday, April 8. Anies also discussed urban issues, especially those in Jakarta. In his lecture, Anies showcased the achievements of the Jak Lingko program which he initiated when he led Jakarta. Anies said that JakLingko was initiated when he saw the fact of the inequality between Jakarta residents and their motorized vehicles.

"A city like Jakarta, one of the biggest challenges is the movement of its population. Jakarta officially has a population of 11 million now, but the two-wheeled motorized vehicle is 13 million," he said.

What happened, said Anies, was that Jakarta was facing traffic jams. Therefore, Anies wants to reduce the number of private vehicles and increase the number of public vehicles with the JakLingko program.

After the JakLingko program, Anies said that the current condition of public transportation is getting better. Anies admits that he rarely sees reckless public transportation on the road.