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Jokowi stresses impartiality in state address
President Jokowi opened his State of the Nation Address on Wednesday with a conspicuous dig at politicians who use him as a "scapegoat" in the search for his successor in the 2024 elections.
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President Joko “Jokowi“ Widodo raises his fist when delivering his State of the Nation address at the House of Representatives complex in Jakarta on Aug. 16, 2023. (Antara/Galih Pradipta)
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo rebutted suggestions that the people should be looking to him to decide on the nation’s next leaders, as he delivered his penultimate State of the Nation address in Jakarta on Wednesday.
Jokowi appeared to make light of unnamed individuals who hinted that it was the role of the “village chief” to decide on political maneuvers aimed at achieving certain outcomes ahead of the 2024 elections, including in the choice of presidential and vice-presidential candidates.
“We are now entering a political year. The situation has mildly escalated. The trend among politicians and those in political parties, whenever asked about their candidates for president and vice president, their answers will be, ‘there hasn’t been any instruction from the village chief,’” the President said, opening his speech.
“These days, I realize that that ‘village chief’ refers to me,” he quipped, to laughter from the audience.
Jokowi then insisted that determining election candidates was the sole remit of political parties or coalitions of parties.
“I am neither the chairperson of a political party nor the leader of a coalition of political parties [...] It is not the authority of this ‘village chief’ to decide,” he stressed.
Read also: Jokowi calls for healthy competition in elections, national unity
