Man walks in reverse ‘to save forests’
JAKARTA: An Indonesian man is walking 700 kilometres from his home on a volcano in East Java to Jakarta in the hope of drawing atention to the archipelago’s quickly shrinking forests — and he is doing it backwards.
Medi Bastoni, a 43-year-old father of four, set out on his arduous, in-reverse journey in mid-july, with the goal of reaching the capital by Aug.16, a day before the Southeast Asian nation’s independence day anniversary.
“Of course I’m exhausted, but I’m willing to do this to fight for the next generation,” Bastoni said.
“(My home) is losing all of its trees so I have to do something. I can take the pain and fatigue.”
When he arrives, Bastoni said he hopes to meet president Joko Widodo and highlight deforestation across the archipelago including at his home on Mt. Wilis, a dormant volcano.
Indonesia suffers from one of the high rates of deforestation in the world, according to Greenpeace.
Bastoni walks 20 to 30 kilometres backwards every day under the scorching sun, with a rearview mirror atached to his backpack to avoid bumping into objects.
Along the way, supporters cheer him on, offer him meals or a place to stay overnight. But Bastoni always leaves at dawn to stay on schedule.
Walking backwards is meant as a signal to Indonesians to reflect on the past and remember how national heroes fought for the good of the country, he said.
In an unrelated development, Widodo said that Indonesia’s state power company PLN should have had plans in place to prevent a major electricity blackout that affected 21 million customers in Jakarta and neighbouring provinces.
In the wake of the biggest power outage in 14 years on Sunday, Widodo demanded to know why the utility PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) did not have a back-up plan given its history of blackouts.
“Things that can cause this big event should not happen again in the future,” Widodo told senior managers during a visit to PLN headquarters, calling for repairs to be made quickly.
Jakarta, the centre of government and business in Indonesia, suffers periodic blackouts that are usually short-lived and confined to certain areas.