One of the things that Indonesian President Joko Widodo is known for is his canny use of social media including regular appearances in Youtube vlogs. One young Indonesian boy hoped to meet the president to help boost his own vlog following and, after waiting for seven hours, finally got his wish.
Gultom James Leonard, a 13-year-old junior high school student, said he heard from his father that the president would be eating dinner at Dapoer Pandan Wangi Restaurant in Bandung on Saturday . The young boy quickly decided on a plan of action — he’d go to the restaurant early so that he could meet the president and, crucially, ask him to appear on his Youtube vlog.
“I wanted to meet Pak Jokowi to ask for a photo and to ask him to ask people to subscribe to my channel,” Gultom told the media, as quoted by Tribun.
Fortunately for Gultom, the restaurant is located very close to his home. He walked over to the venue by himself and sat down to wait for the president at about 2pm.
His hopes for social media exposure gave Gultom the patience to wait until Jokowi and his party arrived for dinner at around 8pm.
About an hour later, after the president had finished his meal, he and his wife, first lady Iriana, approached Gultom. The 13-year-old became so overcome with emotion that he started crying.
As emotional as he got, Gultom was still able to explain to the president that he had wanted come meet him because he was inspiring, he wanted to get a picture with him, and, of course…
“I want to get subscribers,” Gultom said through his tears.
The president kindly agreed to the request. Here’s Gultom’s brief vlog with the president:
“Don’t forget to subscribe to James Gultom’s channel,” Jokowi gamely says to the camera before checking to make sure he got it right.
“Hello guys, so before I met with Pak Jokowi, sorry if the video is just like this,” says the video’s caption.
Gultom seems a bit more up on current events than most 13-year-olds, telling the media after his meeting with the president that one of the things he liked about Jokowi is that he was able to get the Indonesian government to take a majority stake in Papua’s Freeport mine.
Gultom isn’t the only kid to cry because of Jokowi. At the end of 2016, a video of a little girl who wept after missing the president pass by her street went viral, leading to another viral video of the president calling the girl on New Year’s Eve.
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