Surprise! You're Wahyu's father

Surprise! You're Wahyu's father

By Listiana Operananta

JAKARTA (JP): Some "revelations" travel slower than others in
this information age. Akhmad Riyadi only learned he was the proud
father of Indonesia's 200-millionth citizen yesterday, nearly 24
hours after the honor was announced nationwide.

Riyadi has been in nearby Bekasi for the past two weeks
attending a vocational course to prepare him to train in an
automotive plant in Japan. He did not even know that his wife had
given birth, let alone that his newborn son was the toast of the
nation.

"We weren't expecting him until Feb.13," Riyadi told The
Jakarta Post.

President Soeharto named the baby Wahyu Nusantaraaji,
literally "a valuable revelation for Indonesia".

Riyadi, 28, became aware of the good news yesterday morning
when the SCTV television station requested an interview. The TV
reporters had to show the disbelieving father yesterday's Kompas
newspaper to convince him.

His wife, 26-year-old Rohana, gave birth to a healthy 3.9-kg
baby boy Tuesday in his home village in Lombok Timur, about 40 km
from Mataram, the capital of West Nusa Tenggara. Riady does not
have a phone and no one had bothered to try to contact him in
Bekasi with the good news Wednesday.

The "revelation" was so great he had to take a drink of water,
and so effectively broke his fast.

Asked about the name chosen by Soeharto, he said: "It's a very
beautiful name. We'll probably call him Aji."

He confided that he had not prepared any name for the baby but
that his wife might have prepared several.

Aji, who has a three-year-old sister, Miradianasari, is
assured of scholarships for as long as he wants to study as part
of his prize of being named the 200th-million citizen.

"It will be a challenging task raising him because we'll have
the nation's eyes and ears on us and our child," said Riyadi, a
1994 economics graduate from the University of Mataram. "But my
wife and I will try our best to raise him properly and make sure
that he stays on the straight and narrow," he added.

He has no plans yet for Aji, but with the scholarships, he
hopes his son will grow up to become an honest and upright man.

Riyadi said he probably would not see his baby in the near
future because after completing his course in Bekasi he has to go
to Japan next month for two years.