Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo met with six political party leaders at the state palace on Tuesday, May 2, 2023. Present in the meeting were Golkar Party Chairman Airlangga Hartarto; Nation Awakening Party (PKB) Chairman Muhaimin Iskandar; Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party Chairman Prabowo Subianto, National Mandate Party (PAN) Chairman Zulkifli Hasan; United Development Party (PPP) Acting Chairman Muhammad Mardiono; and Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) Chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri.
The invited chairpersons are leaders of parties that supports the government. However, the leader of the National Democrat (NasDem) Party Surya Paloh, was not present although NasDem is one of the government supporting parties.
It is believed that NasDem was not invited to the meeting because the party had decided to support Anies Baswedan to run as a presidential candidate. Anies is known to be one of Jokowi’s political adversary.
In relation to the meeting, several political experts and analyst asserted that the meeting was held to establish a stronger coalition to support a certain candidate pair. However, there is also an opinion that the meeting violates the Constitution.
Political observer Ujang Komaruddin, asserted that the meeting sends a signal that Prabowo will be nominated as a vice president candidate by the coalition.
“Apparently, they can be forming a great coalition and I observed that the great coalition will support Prabowo as vice president candidate,” Ujang said.
Meanwhile, Gerindra Party Chairman Prabowo Subianto claimed that the meeting was held to discuss economic issues and that the President was talking about how Indonesia has the potential to be a developed country.
“We discussed latest economic development, predictions for major countries, predictions of the world bank, the IMF, and all that Indonesia has the potential to become a developed country,” Prabowo said.
Similar with Prabowo, Golkar Chairman Airlangga Hartarto stated that the meeting was held to discuss issues related to development. Airlangga said that the meeting did not discuss about political issues or plans to establish a coalition.
Golkar Party is the party that was formed under the instructions of former Indonesian president Soeharto and Prabowo is the son-in-law of former president Soeharto.
The other side of the coin
On the other hand, former Deputy Minister of Law and Human Rights Denny Indrayana, argued that Jokowi had violated the 1945 Constitution by meddling in election affairs.
Denny explained that based on the 1945 Constitution, there are four core principles. The first principle according to Denny, is that Indonesia is a country of law. The second and third principles are that Indonesia must held an election every five years, and the president will be elected by the citizens. The fourth principle, Denny explained, is that a presidential candidate must be nominated by a political party or a coalition of political parties.
“The four base principles contained in the 1945 Constitution have been violated based on facts and confirmation and validation that I have gathered. That President Jokowi has shifted his role from becoming the referee, which supposed to be neutral, to becoming a referee taking part in the game,” Denny said.
Denny argued that Jokowi had not only leading the game, but also becoming one of the players in the game.
Jokowi’s strategies
Furthermore, Denny explained that President Jokowi have at least two strategies to secure the 2024 Election to allow himself a ‘soft landing’.
The first strategy, as Denny explained, is to get actively involved in the determination of the presidential candidate for the 2024 Election by giving support to certain candidates and not choosing Anies Baswedan and pushing for allowing two candidate pairs only. In addition, Jokowi attempted to make that the two candidate pairs are all the president’s men, so that his initial programs can be continued.
Another strategy, Denny said, is by dividing the votes of Anies Baswedan by supporting Prabowo Subianto as the third presidential candidate. The goal is to divide votes of Anies’s pro-muslin supporters with Prabowo, allowing more votes for Ganjar Pranowo. Jokowi had also prepared Sandiaga Uno as the vice president candidate to be paired with Ganjar, which will even further dissipate Anies’ votes.
