TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Jokowi intensifies talks with Prabowo coalition
President-elect Joko âJokowiâ Widodo says he is communicating with members of losing candidate Prabowo Subiantoâs coalition amid pressures to strengthen his own coalition, which currently consists of four parties compared to seven on Prabowoâs side
Change Size
P
resident-elect Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo says he is communicating with members of losing candidate Prabowo Subianto's coalition amid pressures to strengthen his own coalition, which currently consists of four parties compared to seven on Prabowo's side.
'[I] have met [with members of Prabowo's red-and-white coalition], but I haven't seen anything [promising],' Jokowi said on Saturday.
Jokowi recently said there was a possibility that the ruling Democratic Party and the National Mandate Party (PAN), whose chairman Hatta Rajasa was Prabowo's running mate, would switch sides to Jokowi.
Fueling speculation, PAN central executive board chairman Didi Supriyanto said Hatta and Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri have intensified communication since the Constitutional Court delivered its final ruling on Thursday to uphold the General Elections Commission's (KPU) decision to declare the Jokowi-Jusuf Kalla ticket winner of the July 9 presidential election.
'But that does not necessarily mean that there will be political cooperation [in the future] because such a decision has to be made through party mechanisms,' Didi told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.
Didi added that for now, PAN remained in Prabowo's coalition.
Didi said that Prabowo's coalition remained strong and that it held meetings almost every day to discuss what steps to take following the court ruling and to create strategies it would follow as opposition camp in the House of Representatives (DPR).
Separately, PAN deputy chairman Drajad Wibowo said the decision to join Jokowi's coalition had to be made at the annual national meeting and that such a meeting was scheduled for next year.
'Next year, PAN will have another national meeting. Who knows, there might be a new policy taken,' he said.
Drajad also said that PAN would allow its members to join the Jokowi coalition long as they were not members of the party's central executive board.
PDI-P central board member Maruarar Sirait, when asked about potential shake-ups in the political landscape following the court ruling, said that change was possible after Jokowi's inauguration on Oct. 20.
'I'm very sure that at least one party [from Prabowo's coalition] will give its support [to Jokowi] because every party has its own internal dynamics and will have to reevaluate its political positions,' he said.
Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) political observer Siti Zuhro predicted that at least two parties from Prabowo's coalition would jump ship.
The two parties are the United Development Party (PPP) and the Democratic Party.
'The PPP, since the very beginning, has not completely supported the Prabowo-Hatta ticket, and the Democratic Party always takes the 'wait and see' stance,' she said.
PPP deputy chairman Achmad Dimyati Natakusumah has hinted that the party might throw its support behind Jokowi after a national congress scheduled for November. 'It is possible; it depends on who is selected as leader at the next congress,' he said.
Some Democratic Party executives, meanwhile, previously hinted that the party could support Jokowi, although the final decision would fall to the party chairman, outgoing President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
