16 Agustus

It was around 9 in the morning when I had a phone call from one of my aunts. She told me about this event later on that day. Apparently, each year people are tracing the path of our proclamators back in 1945.

My mom, two of her sisters and I met at Museum Perumusan Naskah Proklamasi at Jl. Imam Bonjol. It's the place where on August 16th 1945 Soekarno, Hatta and some Pemuda's were gathering to drawn Indonesia's proclamation's text. Back then it was the house of Japanese Rear-Admiral Tadashi Maeda. I had goosebumps when I was alone in the room where they met Maeda the first time. There where only a set of yellow chairs & a table that reminded me of the living room of Sonneveld house in Rotterdam. From there we walked to Proclamation Monument at jl. Proklamasi, which was jl. Pegangsaan Timur back in the day when Soekarno announced our independence.

There were actually hundreds of people, young and old who participated in this 'Napak Tilas'. In front of the parade, 4 high school students were carrying pictures of Soekarno & Hatta, and 2 texts of proclamation. Then a bunch of students were carrying flags, followed by a drumband. Behind them were veterans, another group of students, and a group of people on old bicycles.

I was walking amongst these veterans, so I had a chance to chit chat a bit with some of the men. The ones I talked to were in their 80s but they were fit, so fit to the point that they complained that we were walking too slow it was as if we were walking behind a funeral procession! I said to them it's because those students are used to walk in the malls, so they walk in that pace. ;)

Upon arriving at Proclamation Monument, Halida Hatta gave a speech as a member of the family of our proclamators. After that there were entertainment from the younger generation in the form of dangdut! Ok, eventho I hate dangdut, it would probably still ok if they chose a better songs instead of some stupid cheesy love song. Some of the veterans went home because they thought that's not worth it. Too bad,that part really killed the whole thing.