The Story of Faqih and Inolla, Palace Heritage Flag Runner Who Refused to Participate in Paskibraka

TIME.CO, Jakarta – Member Paskibraka Representatives from North Jakarta namely Muhammad Faqih of SMA Negeri 114 Jakarta and Inolla Jovial Gwineth Jacob of SMA Tunas Karya took over the task of breeding the Red and White Saka at Merdeka Palace, Jakarta on Thursday morning, 17th August 2023.

The pair of North Jakarta High School Class XI students were sworn in by President Joko Widodo along with dozens of other students on Tuesday, August 15. They were two of the 78 members of the Heritage Flag Raising Troop for the 78th Indonesian Independence Day ceremony.

Behind the two students’ successes, there is a sense of pride that has enveloped their parents’ hearts. Faqih’s mother Dian Arika (56) said the youngest of her five children is training hard in order to qualify for the national level.

At the beginning of entry into SMA 114 Jakarta, Faqih was initially not interested in joining the extracurricular (Paskibra) Flag Raising Troop. Faqih’s initial interest was joining a basketball extracurricular program.

“Actually, her son initially didn’t want to, because he thought he was tired and tired. However, his older brothers said he had talent and potential,” Dian said. Between Thursday 17 August 2023.

Though he refused at first, Faqih gradually began to take this activity seriously. He practiced hard in school, until he finally had the chance to enroll in the city-wide Paskibraka selection. Past the city level, Faqih continued to participate in the provincial level selection.

In fact, Faqih managed to pass all the selection processes and advance nationally.

“I was there crying all the time, oh God how come I wasn’t expecting this all this time because I really didn’t have any thoughts of going national,” said Dian.

Happiness was also experienced by Rolyne H Jacob (45), mother of Inolla Jovial Gwineth Jacob. Although Inolla had previously refused when her mother ordered him to take part in the selection of Paskibraka in January 2023, she ultimately persevered in taking part in the training from the city to the provincial level.

Inolla’s self-confidence began to grow, until finally he dared to take part in the national selection and actually passed. From the beginning, Rolyne believed in her son’s great potential, so she kept pushing Inolla to advance to the next levels.

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“He had aspirations to be a criminologist. His aspirations were kind of scary, so actually like that, I saw his ability to be in a field like Paskibraka, which is more or less military, semi-military, because it’s a tomboy child, yes, the term,” she said.

Faqih and Inolla have been preparing physically and mentally for months. Prayers and support continue to flow from Dian and Rolyne, hoping their children can successfully complete their service to the country.

“After 13 years there were no representatives of North Jakarta Paskibraka at national level, finally this year a couple of North Jakarta Paskibraka came at national level,” said Muhammad Faqih, a candidate for national level paskibraka.

North Jakarta Mayor Ali Maulana Hakim assessed that the result was not just a coincidence or luck but that there was a process that was gone through to pass the selection and finally get elected.

Both underwent a selection starting from the city, provincial level, until they finally managed to overcome the tight competition at the national level.

Ali revealed that serving as a member of Paskibraka should be a positive choice of activity for young people to teach how to be disciplined, dedicated, responsible and can be an example.

“Our hope is that the students who participate in Paskibraka can be role models at any time and that in carrying out their assignments everything goes smoothly,” said Ali.

On that occasion, the mayor of North Jakarta left a message to Muhammad Faqih and Inolla Jovial Gwineth Jacob to stay healthy, be diligent in worship and keep increasing motivation.

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