JAKARTA – An activist for President elect Prabowo Subianto has reminded Minister of State-owned Enterprises (SOEs) Erick Thohir not to “retaliate” against members of volunteer groups of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo who shifted their allegiance in the 2024 presidential election from the president’s directions.
“Erick Thohir must remember that Prabowo Subianto and Joko Widodo reconciled after the 2019 presidential elections. It is the great spirit of the two figures that has created the current (politically conducive) situation,” Head of the Prabowo Mania group of volunteers, Immanuel “Noel” Ebenezer said on Thursday, May 9, 2024.
“I urge Erick Thohir not to take revenge by removing Jokowi volunteers sitting in a number of SOEs’ board of commissioners because of their different political choices in the 2024 election. They must be embraced, instead. The potential of Jokowi volunteers is huge, so we should no longer be busy taking revenge,” he added.
Noel said that if this nation has the tradition of taking revenge against those having different choices, then it will not make progress. Instead, it will create historical setbacks, because time is wasted on meaningless arguments.
He said that his calls for Erick not to take such drastic actions was a response to widespread speculations that Jokowi volunteers sitting as commissioners in a number of SOEs would be removed from their posts because they had different political choices in the 2024 election.
Noel asserted that he would stand tall to fight for their continuing positions in the SOEs’ board of commissioners as a token of rewards for their support for Jokowi in the 2014 and 2019 presidential elections.
“Do not look at differences, but build reconciliation. Let’s invite our friends who had different political choices in the 2024 election to join the nation’s big carriage for change,” he said.
He emphasized that Prabowo is also open to building reconciliation, while citing Prabowo’s willingness to join the government of Jokowi in 2019 to build the nation.
“So I remind Erick Thohir not to retaliate against Jokowi volunteers who were considered having shifted their allegiance in the 2024 elections. Let’s invite them to jointly build the nation,” Noel concluded.
