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Jokowi absent from Golkar anniversary event
Party chairman Bahlil Lahadalia said Golkar had sent invitations to Jokowi, President Prabowo Subianto and Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka, who is also the former president’s eldest son, among other party leaders.
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Then-president Joko "Jokowi" Widodo delivers a speech at the close of the Golkar Party's national conference in Jakarta on Aug. 21, 2024. Bahlil Lahadalia, a figure widely seen as a key ally to the former president, was elected party chairman for the 2024-2029 term during the conference. (Antara Foto/Muhammad Adimaja)
F
ormer president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo was noticeably absent from the Golkar Party’s 60th anniversary event on Thursday evening, as speculation continues about his political future following the transfer of power in October, as well as his departure from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).
The nation’s oldest political party celebrated its diamond jubilee at an event themed “Solid Golkar for an Advanced Indonesia”, held on Dec. 12 at Sentul International Convention Center (SICC) in Bogor regency, West Java.
Golkar chairman Bahlil Lahadalia, who is also the incumbent energy minister, said on Wednesday that the party had sent out invitations to President Prabowo Subianto and Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka, Jokowi’s eldest son, along with the former president and other party leaders, though he could not confirm Jokowi’s at the time.
Shortly before the celebrations commenced on the following day, Golkar senior politician Ace Hasan Syadzily, who is also governor of the National Resilience Institute (Lemhanas), told reporters that the party had “actually never formally invited him [Jokowi]”, kompas.com reported.
Since leaving office on Oct. 20, Jokowi has spent most of his days in his Central Java hometown of Surakarta.
He has a deeply strained relationship with the PDI-P and party matriarch Megawati Sukarnoputri, the country’s fifth president, even though the party played a key role in elevating him to the national political stage. The rift between the two leaders began after Jokowi declined to support PDI-P candidate Ganjar Pranowo in the presidential race and instead tacitly endorsed the Prabowo-Gibran pair.
Read also: Jokowi looks to Prabowo after PDI-P shuts door on reconciliation
