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or sure there will be no hindrance to the inauguration of Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo and Jusuf Kalla as the president and vice president for 2014-2019 during the People'€™s Consultative Assembly (MPR) plenary session on Monday.

MPR leaders have said that the historic event will run as planned. But for many, such an assurance is far from enough as from the day that Jokowi assumes power his government will have to negotiate with the House of Representatives, which is controlled by his detractors.

Contrary to market worries about political instability resulting from the opposition-dominated House, which is unprecedented, Jokowi has repeatedly shrugged off any possibility of the House maneuvering to hold his programs hostage.

Besides the presidential system of government that gives Jokowi vast power, the latest developments in the run-up to his induction as the seventh president of the world'€™s fourth-most populous country have given the outgoing Jakarta governor every reason to brim with confidence.

First and foremost, Jokowi and the public alike are aware that the opposition, grouped under the Red and White Coalition, is not as solid as it has claimed, as evident in the ongoing national congress of the United Development Party (PPP) in Surabaya.

The Muslim-based party is holding the congress to elect a new chairman and formalize its shift from the Red and White Coalition to the rival camp that supports the Jokowi government. The PPP left the alliance that endorsed losing presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto during the MPR session last week after its bid for an MPR deputy speaker post was rejected.

Some have speculated that the Red and White Coalition deliberately kicked out the internal rift-plagued PPP after the Democratic Party had confirmed its support for the opposition despite its claim to be the balancing force.

If PPP now decides to jump ship, it would simply be part of politics, which of course knows no free lunch.

Politically wise, Jokowi'€™s tete-a-tete with Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie on Tuesday should not have come as a surprise either. The president-elect'€™s initiative to reach out to members of the opposition is indeed important to convince the public, including the market, that political rivalry does not mean that the door is closed to dialog between the warring parties and, hence, solutions.

Aburizal said Golkar would remain with the opposition, although as Jokowi believes, there is no guarantee that the party will, especially since it is bracing for a congress to elect a new party chairman for the next five-year term. Like the PPP, Golkar is also facing internal squabbling, with several groups that founded the party demanding that Aburizal be replaced after his failure to lead the party to victory in the April legislative election and in contesting the presidential election.

Only time will tell whether the political landscape will change in Jokowi'€™s favor, but as the old adage goes, there are no permanent enemies in politics, only permanent interests.