Erick Thohir In Red Batik Accompanies Megawati Around Sarinah

Megawati Soekarnoputri with Erick Thohir at Sarinah Jakarta/PHOTO: Wardhany Tsa Tsia-VOI

JAKARTA - PDI-P General Chair Megawati Soekarnoputri visited the first shopping center or mall in Jakarta, Sarinah, on Monday, June 13 yesterday. During his visit, the 5th President of the Republic of Indonesia was accompanied by the Minister of SOEs, Erick Thohir, who appeared to be wearing a red batik.

Erick Thohir accompanied Megawati around Sarinah, Central Jakarta. In fact, both of them took pictures in front of the reliefs from the reign of the First President of the Republic of Indonesia Soekarno or Bung Karno.

The two of them also seemed to have a light conversation. In fact, Megawati occasionally laughed at the explanation of the former Chairperson of the Jokowi-Ma'ruf National Campaign Team (TKN) in the 2019 presidential election.

After touring Sarinah, Megawati and Erick Thohir ate together at a restaurant. The moment was held behind closed doors.

After eating together, Megawati accompanied by Erick Thohir met the media crew. He said that he came to the shopping center because he wanted to see the results of the renovations carried out by the BUMN.

"Mr. Erick has been wanting to show me for 1.5 months that Sarinah's renovation has been completed," Megawati told reporters in Sarinah, Central Jakarta, Monday, June 13.

"So I said to Mr. Erick, yes, I'd better see before it will be inaugurated by Mr. Jokowi in July," added the 5th President of the Republic of Indonesia.

Megawati admitted that she was shown various things in Sarinah, which had just been renovated. Including the 'hidden' relief depicting a farmer from West Java named Marhaen.

Regarding this relief, Megawati admitted that she did not remember who the artist was. But, he said, there were several people who worked on and told stories about a farmer in West Java named Marhaen.

"I think it's very good, very beautiful because there each floor has its own meaning. Especially regarding the reliefs that after Bung Karno was no longer president, the reliefs seemed to be hidden in quotes," he said.

"But in the end, thank God, it can be returned, which in my opinion from an artistic point of view is extraordinary because maybe young people today don't necessarily know, to sculpt like that, the length of such a relief is not an easy thing because it is three-dimensional," explained Megawati.

Meanwhile, Erick Thohir claimed that he only discussed Sarinah. He denied there was any conversation about politics during a closed lunch with Megawati for an hour.

"I think it's mostly about Sarinah," said Erick.

Instead of talking about politics, Erick admitted that he received advice from Megawati. One of them is to make Sarinah a place that displays the history of the nation so that young people can learn about it.

"He advised that if possible, historical facts could continue to be rolled out in Sarinah. How about us, as a nation, there have been ups and downs in history," he said.

"Well, maybe we should try to have a mini cinema but not a big movie theater. Mini cinema so people can see our history, Sarinah's history, other histories that are visually easy for the younger generation to imagine now because this is the era of TikTok and YouTube. ," added Eric.

As for the red batik he wore, Erick Thohir didn't say much. He chose to take a thousand steps when confirmed regarding this matter.

"Enough, that's enough," he concluded as he walked into Sarinah.