Two photos surfaced on Twitter by handle @gothed on Monday (27/8). At first, seemingly nothing exciting on the pictures other than seeing children playing on the road with black asphalt, clearly new.
But once people read the caption, it mentioned the excitement of children experiencing new asphalt road that they took off their sandals and played on the road barefooted.
kebahagiaan yang sederhana adalah pembangunan yang merata. Adek² kita ini akhirnya merasakan apa yang namanya aspal, saking excitednya mereka sampe lepas sandal 😂👌.
— Mas Rufi ☻ (@gothed) August 27, 2018
tkp daerah Wates Wali Songo. pic.twitter.com/L31v7UcnbX
"Simple happiness is equitable development. Our little siblings finally feel what is called asphalt, so excited they got off the sandals," the tweet said.
It quickly garnered attention from Indonesia netizens as thousands retweets and likes pile up.
The tweet also mentioned that the photos were taken in Wates, a rural area in Central Lampung of Lampung province in the Sumatra island.
The Twitter user then offhandedly added in a thread under the original post that after the tweet he was stamped as 'cebong'.
The word 'cebong' shorts for 'kecebong' or tadpoles is commonly used to describe President Joko Widodo's avid followers. The president was famous for his frogs pet residing in the presidential palace in Bogor.
The 'cebong' comment on the tweet has a political undertone. Jokowi's administration has been striving to build infrastructures all across the country. It was one of his key priorities.
Jokowi and Infrastructures
Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported, of Jokowi’s pipeline of 265 projects--including new roads, highways, airports, etc.--26 have been completed since the program started in 2016.
It was done at the cost of US$3.4 billion, including $976 million on six projects finished last year, according to Rainier Haryanto, the program director of the Indonesian government’s Committee to Accelerate Priority Infrastructure, in the interview. There are a further 145 under construction.
These infrastructures projects raised concern as the country's debt reportedly has increased about 48% since Jokowi came to office in 2014. Although, from an analysis posted in The Conversation, the debt-to-GDP ratio of Indonesia is still within a sustainable limit.
The country also is seen to have utilized its debt effectively, spending it to improve the country's healthcare and education system other than building infrastructures.
All in all, back to the tweet and the happy faces of the children, even infrastructure development is long overdue for the country who just celebrated its 73rd anniversary. It is needed now more than ever.
Source: Bloomberg, The Conversation