Woman who blocked motorcycles on Sudirman sidewalk hailed as hero after Jakarta Post photo goes viral

Metropolis has Superman, Gotham City has Batman, and now Jakarta has Alfini – a brave woman who stood against a stream of motorcycles on the sidewalk of Jalan Sudirman yesterday on behalf of all Jakarta pedestrians.

Her brave stand was captured on the front page of today’s Jakarta Post newspaper, along with the caption: “A woman named as Alfini daringly blocks a group of motorcycles attempting to avoid traffic by trespassing on a sidewalk on Jl. Sudirman in Jakarta on Monday. She took action to protest unruly bikers.”

Despite being illegal, motorcycle drivers often use the city’s sidewalks as their own personal shortcuts, a fact that most pedestrians are simply forced to accept as police rarely seem to care. But Alfini’s stand struck a chord with many people online, and her photo on the front of the Jakarta Post has quickly gone viral today on Indonesian social media, especially after it was posted to the Facebook account of Koalisi Pejalan Kaki (Coalition of Pedestrians).

“Don’t give mercy #JETRO Encourage and Teach them Proper Conduct #MotorcylesThievesOnTheSidewalk #SavePedestrians”The photo was also shared by celebrity musician Glenn Fredly, who praised Alfini on his Twitter account.

“Alfini stopping the motorcycles that are violating the rights of pedestrians. She is a sane woman of the capital..Love u Alfini..Another user named @cimuts asked an obvious but important question about the incident:

“After Daffa now Alfini .. Where are the police?” 

Daffa, as you may remember, was the brave boy in Semarang who also became a heavily praised online hero when a photo of him blocking motorcycles went viral.

Pedestrians in Jakarta have so many problems to deal with already without having to share the capital’s extremely limited amount of sidewalks with motorcycles. If the police can’t keep them on the road where they belong, perhaps we will see more like Alfini take a stand against the rising tide of motorcycle sidewalk misappropriation. 



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