Jakarta Governor, Anies Baswedan sent off National Easter Torchbearers who will be dispatched to Batam, Riau Islands as the destination for National Easter 2021 event.

Jakarta has always been a transit place

Previously, Easter Torchbearers were departed from Poso, Central Sulawesi on Monday (4/5). It was also attended by Poso Regent, Verna GM Inkiriwang and national Easter center committee.

Jakarta was chosen as a stopover for Easter Torch Relay because of long history of Capital City as meeting place where diversity meets unity.

"Hopefully all of us in this place can witness that the journey to establish unity is done with serious efforts," he stated at Jakarta City Hall, Thursday (4/22), as quoted from Jakarta PPID Press Release.

"Jakarta has always been a transit place. We become a transit, means a knot, so this place is the knot of strong unity. I always underline that our nation is indeed diverse. It is a gift from God, but unity is our endeavor and our decision. And in this place we work together to struggle for unity thus God gives us unity in this land we love," he said.

Moreover, he also said the COVID-19 pandemic became a challenge in carrying out this tradition. But he assessed that the challenge should be passed well, problems due to pandemic should be overcome, and tradition could be still preserved.

"We are given challenges by God to continue tradition of preserving history of mankind for generation 2020-2021. Pandemic is not easy, but in situation like this, we find a way to preserve history of mankind by maintaining health and all other measures to save," he added.

"On the other hand, we continue the tradition, preserve the tradition, develop the tradition, and not leaving behind the past," he mentioned.