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Pressure mounts on Jokowi to address proposal to extend his term
The President has remained silent after leaders of political parties within the ruling coalition suggested last week that the upcoming elections be postponed, raising questions about whether the proposal came from the President himself.
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Ten-hut!: President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo (third left) and Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto (second left) inspect the first batch of Reserve Component personnel from a military jeep at the Indonesian Army’s Special Forces training center in Batujajar, West Bandung, West Java, on Oct. 7, 2021. (Courtesy of Press Bureau of Presidential Secretariat/Laily Rachev)
P
resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is facing growing pressure to publicly address proposals to extend his presidential term floated by several leaders of his legislative coalition.
The President has remained silent after leaders of political parties within the ruling coalition suggested last week that the upcoming elections be postponed, raising questions about whether the proposal came from Jokowi himself.
Ahmad Khoirul Umam, executive director of the Institute for Democracy and Strategic Affairs, said that if Jokowi truly had no intention of extending his term, he should come forward and firmly convey that stance to the public.
“[Jokowi’s] silence indicates that there is a calculation, a strategy to buy more time. If his silence persists, then it is reasonable that civil society […] will start questioning his commitment to the reform that has been entrusted to him,” Khoirul said in a live-streamed discussion.
Ahmad suspected that the current discourse on delaying the election was part of a pattern of testing the waters for an extension of Jokowi’s term, as advanced previously by the Presidential Palace.
"If we look at the pattern, it is quite systematic. First, it was conveyed by a minister. The resistance was quite strong because it did not have sufficient political power. But the second one was carried out simultaneously by political parties, leaders of political parties," said Umam.
Feri Amsari, a constitutional expert at Andalas University, said Jokowi should reject the notion of postponing the 2024 election.
