Politically, the 2019 presidential election ended through the meeting between the two contestants on 13 July 2019 which marked the concession of Prabowo Subianto for the election of Joko “Jokowi” Widodo as elected president for the 2019-2024 term.
Then, a new political process begins, namely the formation of a cabinet which would later become the locomotive in running the administration of the second term of President Jokowi. The question now is whether there is a need for members of the Jokowi coalition to be added or not considering the number of seats in the House of Representatives (DPR) that have been controlled has reached more than 60 percent with the number of parties more than half (five parties) from parties that qualify to enter Senayan.
Because the solidity of the presidential coalition is usually not as strong as the parliamentary system coalition, there are at least three reasons to possibly add to the Jokowi coalition. The three reasons are the presidentialization of the coalition, the presidentialization of political parties in the DPR, and other reasons. At the same time, there are reasons to limit the number of members of the government coalition for the sake of healthier democracy in the future. A significant opposition is still needed so that the government runs effectively.
Presidentialization of the coalition, the presidentialization of political parties
Coalition issues appear in the presidential system because of the multiparty system. The elected president is usually supported by parties that have minority seats in the DPR even though the parties are is the winner of the election. During the last 15 years of the Indonesian government system, this has been the case. In the first term of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY), the presidential parties only had about 10 percent of the seats in the DPR. In the second term of SBY, the Democratic Party, despite being the winner of the election, only had 26 percent of the seats in the DPR.
President Jokowi\'s party (PDI-P) in the 2014-2019 term only had 19 percent of the seats in the DPR despite being the winner of the election. In order make the support for the President to become a majority in the DPR, a coalition is needed.
HERYUNANTO
The issue of the coalition also surfaced in a parliamentary system if it has a multi-party system. So, the coalition is not a differentiator between the presidential system and the parliamentary system. The issue of the coalition exists because of the multiparty system, whatever the system of the government. In a parliamentary system, a coalition is needed to form a government. Consequently, if the coalition breaks out, the government also breaks out. If a party changes sides, it also suffers from the breakout. Therefore, the coalition\'s solidity is stronger. In the presidential system, the coalition is needed not to form a government, but to run the government. The President can still form a government even though he does not have the majority support in the legislature/the House of Representatives. However, the President needs the support of the majority of House members to carry out government agendas because the government functions, such as making laws, making the State budget (APBN), and overseeing the execution of government programs, all involve the House of Representatives.
Djayadi Hanan, Executive Director of SMRC; Political Science Lecturer at Paramadina University
