PDIP presidential candidate Ganjar Pranowo and presidential candidate of the Coalition for Unity and Change (KPP) Anies Baswedan, unexpectedly met during the Hajj pilgrimage. The meeting took place during lunchtime at the Mina Hospitality Palace.
Information about the meeting was shared by the Acting Chairman of the National Coordination Board of Ganjar supporter Kris Tjantra. In addition to Ganjar and Anies, the Minister of National Development Planning and Head of Bappenas, Suharso Monoarfa, was also present.
Both Ganjar and Anies were accompanied by their respective spouses, Ganjar’s wife Siti Atiqoh, and Anies’s wife Fery Farhati.
The meeting in Mina
The meeting occurred during lunchtime at the Mina Hospitlity Palace in Mina, Saudi Arabia. This information was provided by Kholid, when contacted on Tuesday (27/6/2023).
Kholid mentioned that Ganjar and Anies had a private conversation, but he was unaware of the details.
“When they met, they might have just had a chat. However, I don’t know what they had discussed,” Kholid said.
Kholid also considered the meeting as a message of brotherhood to their respective supporters.
“This is a good thing, on a sacred day and on sacred land, this meeting sends a message of brotherhood in the context of Islam and national unity,” he stated.
How it happened
It turns out that the Minister of National Development Planning/Head of Bappenas, Suharso Monoarfa, was the one encouraging and inviting Anies and Ganjar to take a photo together.
Suharso explained that he had saw Ganjar and Anies sitting close to each other and engaged in a conversation.
Suharso immediately asked them to take a photo. According to him, the moment of Ganjar and Anies’s meeting should be seen by the Indonesian people.
“I was delighted to see them sitting so closely and talking. I observed it from a distance. I didn’t want to miss this historic moment for me,” Suharso said, as reported by detikNews on Wednesday (28/6/2023).
Suharso then approached the two figures and said that ‘Indonesia should see this’, and invited Anies and Ganjar to take the photograph.
