Magelang – Sholeh, the owner of a street food meatball stall in the Bandongan District, Magelang, felt happy. His stall was visited by President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) and Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto on Monday (29/1) afternoon.
His street food stall became a pit stop for Jokowi and Prabowo to eat meatballs together after attending the inauguration of the Main Hall at the Military Academy (Akmil) in Magelang.
“Today, January 29, Alhamdulillah, my stall was visited by unexpected guests, the President of Indonesia Pak Jokowi and Pak Prabowo came to my stall in Bandongan,” said Sholeh gleefully.
Sholeh was very grateful that the meal with both of them went smoothly. He said that Jokowi and Prabowo seemed to really enjoy his meatball dishes with the addition of fresh coconut water.
In fact, he admitted that he had doubts about his ability to prepare hundreds of tendon meatball orders the day before Jokowi and Prabowo’s visit. In addition to preparing meatball dishes for both of them, he also made 400 portions to be distributed free to the residents.
“The day before the visit, the Presidential Security Detail (Paspampres) came to me and asked for permission because there were state guests,” Sholeh said.
“I asked myself, can I prepare it or not? Actually, I was hesitant, but I was optimistic that it had to be possible and I had to be strong. It turns out that everything can run smoothly now,” he continued.
Sholeh also told how happy his family was to take photos with Jokowi and Prabowo. Moreover, he and his elementary school-aged child were very happy to have the opportunity to shake hands directly with Prabowo.
“We even got to shake hands with Mr. Prabowo. Here’s the photo. Alhamdulillah, it was unexpected,” said Sholeh.
He considered Prabowo, whom he met for the first time in person, to be very kind and friendly. “From a personal standpoint, he is good. I can’t put it into words. He even ate my meatballs himself,” he said.
Sholeh revealed that when shaking hands, Prabowo wished him success in his tendon meatball business. “He said ‘may you always be successful’ (from Prabowo),” Sholeh said.
He also prayed that Prabowo could lead the country so that all parties would remain united.
“May Mr. Prabowo always be healthy and (hopefully) can lead this country to remain united in diversity, E Pluribus Unum,” he said.
At the location, not only Jokowi and Prabowo were present, but several celebrities and Instagram influencers such as Raffi Ahmad, Nagita Slavina, Atta Halilintar, Ria Ricis, Lula Lahfah, Rachel Vennya, Salim Nauderer, Tara Budiman, Christian Bong, Celine Evangelista, and Aan Story were also seen. They all appeared in matching plain white shirts. (SENOPATI)
