To promote Asiad, president does poco-poco

Jakarta, August 5

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Indonesian president Joko Widodo led some 65,000 of his compatriots in a mass dance through the streets of Jakarta today to promote the Asian Games and try to set a world record along the way.

Jakarta and the city of Palembang in Sumatra will jointly host Asia’s biggest sporting event from August 18 but Widodo has previously complained about the lack of promotion and enthusiasm in the country. In a bid to drum up support ahead of the Games, authorities turned to the poco-poco, a traditional line dance from North Sulawesi province.

Dressed in white and red — the colour of the Indonesian flag — Widodo, his wife Iriana, and several high ranking officials led tens of thousands of Indonesians in a long, snaking line of dancers through the capital. Organisers hope to break the world record for the largest number of people performing the traditional dance in one place and said 65,000 people took part in Jakarta.

“Poco-poco is the original culture of Indonesia and it’s a native dance, so we are now performing a mass poco-poco dance with 65,000 people setting the world record, showing and reiterating poco-poco belongs to Indonesia,” police chief Tito Karnavian, who took part in the event, said.

Police and military staff, members of parliament, students, as well as inmates in jails across Indonesia all showed their best poco-poco moves at the same. — AFP