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Solo on my mind: Jokowi wants to pack up after 2024
President Jokowi would prefer to return to his hometown in Surakarta rather than continue to wrestle in politics after he steps down from office.
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President Joko “Jokowi“ Widodo talks to The Jakarta Post during an interview at the Presidential Palace, Jakarta, on Nov. 2, 2022. (JP/Abdur Rahim)
P
resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has told The Jakarta Post in an exclusive interview that he wishes only to return home once he retires from the national political stage, a desire that seemingly nips in the bud any suggestions that he could take over the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) with the backing of loyal supporters.
Solo, the old name of his Central Java hometown of Surakarta, appears to be on his mind; it was there that the former furniture businessman plied his trade and stumbled into regional politics, setting him on a meteoric rise to the top job that has had his fans clamoring for more than a two-term presidency.
Speculation has abounded as the PDI-P scrambles to downplay recent talk of a leadership succession, with more and more people coming around to the possibility that the party’s matriarch, Megawati Soekarnoputri, could soon step down.
But when asked if he could be persuaded to take over the reins of the party as sought by an alleged volunteer supporter group, Jokowi rebuffed the suggestion.
“I’m going home to Solo after I retire,” he said at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Wednesday.
“Seriously, I’m not kidding.”
Scouted as a political newcomer with a then-novel take on regional governance, the former Surakarta mayor and later Jakarta governor helped the PDI-P break free from a 10-year spell in the opposition ranks to win the 2014 elections.
