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Pancasila Day reunites political rivals
Monday’s Pancasila Day celebration marked President Prabowo Subianto’s second meeting with de facto opposition party chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri and an unexpected reunion between her and former party member Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka.
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President Prabowo Subianto (right) shakes hands on Monday with Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri during the ceremony to celebrate the birth of the country's founding ideology Pancasila at the Foreign Ministry’s Pancasila building in Jakarta. (Antara/Muhammad Adimaja)
T
he Pancasila Day celebration marked a rare occasion that brought together the country’s current and former leaders despite recent political tensions, as President Prabowo Subianto met with former president Megawati Soekarnoputri, who also reunited with former party member Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka.
Prabowo was seen greeting Megawati, the chairwoman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), who attended the Monday event at the Foreign Ministry’s Pancasila building in her capacity as head of the Agency for the Implementation of the State Ideology of Pancasila (BPIP) steering committee.
Senior politicians and former vice presidents Try Sutrisno and Jusuf Kalla joined the two politicians.
Monday’s ceremony commemorated the anniversary of the country’s founding ideology Pancasila. Prabowo’s predecessor, Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, established June 1 as a national holiday to honor the speech delivered by founding president Sukarno, Megawati’s father, when he introduced the five principles 80 years ago.
In a luncheon hosted by Prabowo after the ceremony, the President and Megawati were seen exchanging pleasantries and jokes.
It was the second meeting between Prabowo and Megawati since he assumed office in October of last year. The first came in April when Prabowo met Megawati at her residence in Central Jakarta. That meeting was widely viewed as a reconciliation after Prabowo’s decisive election victory, which pushed the PDI-P to be the only de facto opposition party to the President’s Gerindra Party-led Onward Indonesia Coalition (KIM).
Read also: Prabowo, Megawati make joint appearance for Pancasila Day
