Coalition Decision in The Hands of Jokowi

KOMPAS/HERU SRI KUMORO

President-elect Joko “Jokowi” Widodo (fifth left) arrives for a meeting to dissolve the National Campaign Team (TKN) supporting him and running mate Ma’ruf Amin in Menteng, Central Jakarta, on Friday (26/7/2019). Also present at the meeting were Ma\'ruf, party leaders supporting the pair and TKN team members.

The decision to add political parties to the government coalition is in the hands of Joko “Jokowi” Widodo. Communication among the political elites is expected to further strengthen national unity.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The political party members of the Jokowi-Ma\'ruf Amin coalition in the 2019 election agreed to entrust a decision related to the discourse of adding coalition members to Jokowi as the president-elect for the 2019-2024 term. Even though there are currently differences of opinion among coalition political parties about the need to add members, the coalition is confirmed to remain solid.

Jokowi affirmed several times the coalition\'s solidity when attending the dissolution of the National Campaign Team (TKN) on Friday (26/7/2019) in Jakarta.

"I have already said, the coalition is fine, just solid. It\'s really solid, more solid than before," Jokowi said.

The dissolution of the TKN was also attended, among others, by vice president-elect Ma\'ruf Amin, chairman of the TKN steering board Jusuf Kalla, chairman of the TKN Erick Thohir and executive chairman of the TKN, Moeldoko. Also present were all the secretary-generals of political parties supporting the Jokowi-Amin pair.

The solidity of the Jokowi-Amin coalition had been widely discussed after Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairperson Megawati Soekarnoputri accepted the arrival of Gerindra Party chairman Prabowo Subianto at her home on Jl. Teuku Umar, Jakarta, on Wednesday. On the same day, the general chairman of the Nasdem Party, Surya Paloh, in his party\'s central executive board office, met with Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan.

On Monday, Surya Paloh also received a visit from three other general chairpersons of political party members of the Jokowi-Amin coalition, namely the Golkar Party, the National Awakening Party (PKB), and the United Development Party (PPP). After the meeting, which was not attended by representatives from the PDI-P, it was stated that there was no need to add the political parties of the Jokowi-Amin coalition.

No need to question it

According to Jokowi, there was need to further question the meetings.

"Yes, right, they are good friends [who have had] a pleasant relationship for a long time. If Pak Prabowo met Bu Mega, yes, it is usual. Pak Surya Paloh had a meeting with Pak Anies, yes, it is also usual," he said.

Jokowi said the strength of political parties in supporting the government coalition in the House of Representatives (DPR) is already quite strong. Jokowi also said he had not discussed the possibility of adding political parties to the coalition supporting the government with Ma’ruf Amin or the leaders of

his coalition member political parties. With regard to the formation of the 2019-2024 Cabinet, according to Jokowi, it has also not been discussed, either with supporting parties, campaign teams or volunteers.

Meanwhile, Golkar secretary-general Lodewijk F Paulus explained that five political parties belonging to the Jokowi-Amin coalition, which have seats in the DPR for the 2019-2024 term, namely PDI-P, Golkar, Nasdem, PKB and PPP, agreed to entrust the decision of whether or not to add a coalition member to Jokowi. According to Lodewijk, even though the power of political parties supporting the government in the DPR was adequate, there were other factors that needed to be considered before making a decision. These factors include testing and guaranteeing the solidity of political parties in the Jokowi-Amin coalition, not only for the next five years but also for the next period.

The simulation results of the Kompas research and development (R&D) study of the vote acquisition of the 2019 election, five political parties supporting the Jokowi-Amin coalition have 349 seats or 60.7 percent of the total 575 seats in the DPR. Meanwhile, the four political parties that in the last election joined the Prabowo-Sandiaga coalition, were projected to get 226 DPR seats. The four political parties are Gerindra, the Democratic Party, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the National Mandate Party (PAN).

At present, Gerindra is drafting a concept in the field of food and energy independence to be submitted to the Jokowi-Amin government. With regard to this, Lodewijk said, the coalition would review the input. According to him, there is nothing wrong with the concept proposed by Gerindra.

"Pak Jokowi\'s and Pak Prabowo\'s visions are basically the same; only the way to achieve them is a bit different," he said.

Meanwhile, Nasdem secretary-general Johnny G Plate explained that his party would not question Jokowi\'s statement that the current power of the government coalition was enough. He said that Jokowi had the right to determine the direction of the coalition in the future.

"Everything is the President\'s prerogative and we will safeguard and protect it," he said.

However, he remained in the view that adding parties to the coalition was not needed.

Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister, who is also a PDI-P politician, Puan Maharani, said there was no certainty regarding the possibility of whether Gerindra would join the Jokowi-Amin coalition.

However, she hoped that the recent interpolitical relations among the political elites, such as through the meeting between Megawati and Prabowo, would further strengthen national unity.

"The important thing is to be together, united, and build this nation," she said.

( NTA/DVD/DIT/AGE)