Live-blogging the Jakarta torch relay

The Jakarta event was not a normal torch relay, it was an invitation-only spectacle for friends of China in Indonesia. It was held in the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium which holds 100,000 people. According the the Jakarta Post, only five thousand received invitations to attend today's event, including 1,000 students from China resident in Jakarta.

I was present when some local Jakarta students showed up. They were from the outskirts of Jakarta. Waking up before dawn, they traveled a long way to come and watch the torch relay. But these students were not welcome as the picture and the video shows. Their teachers had already gone home, but they continued to plead with the guards to let them in to see the torch relay. But it was to no avail.





Security was tight for the relay. "There are many security services here," said a new media journalist I spoke with. "I see Shabara, Intelligence, K9, Brimobs, and Lantas. Inspector General Adung Firman is even here." Just as he was saying this, the army showed up. Dozens of orange berets troops piled out of three trucks.

The photo at left shows one of the torch bearers, Toufik Hidayat. Hidayat is Indonesia's hope for a gold medal in badminton. His exit from the stadium generated a lot of interest.

See also CNN.