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t a time when President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo'€™s administration is seeking to improve its waning popularity by introducing a series of policy packages to stimulate the economy, representatives of the Democratic Party have insisted that the public is clamoring for the return of party chairman Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to the center stage of politics.

During his opening speech at the party'€™s 14th anniversary celebrations at the House of Representatives complex in Jakarta, the head of the Democratic Party faction in the house, Edhie Baskoro '€œIbas'€ Yudhoyono, claimed that sections of the public wanted his father to return as president, despite the fact that this was not possible from a regulation standpoint.

'€œMany people have [told me] that they missed [Yudhoyono], saying '€˜I want Pak SBY back'€™ '€” I can only smile in return,'€ Ibas said on Wednesday, referring to the widely used acronym for the former president.

'€œMany challenges await Indonesia: The economy is worrisome and [...] the price of basic needs keeps on rising. There is also a massive wave of layoffs, an outbreak of conflicts in the regions and forest fires raging in Sumatra and Kalimantan, [all resulting in a] lack of trust by various stakeholders.'€

Ibas, who is Yudhoyono'€™s youngest son, commented on his father'€™s achievements with rose-tinted glasses as he claimed that a '€œsilent majority'€ is finding out how hard it is to manage a country.

Yudhoyono quickly dispelled any hopes among his party'€™s senior members and the media present by saying that he was at the event as '€œa former president and not a presidential candidate'€. He also reiterated his party'€™s stance on the political playing field.

'€œThe political position of the Democratic Party is very clear: In the context of political coalitions, we really have become a counterweight [to the two existing coalitions],'€ Yudhoyono said in his speech, referring to the ruling Great Indonesia Coalition and the opposing Red-and-White Coalition.

He was quick to point out that the party'€™s neutral stance was not a form of indecisiveness but reminiscent of the decision that Indonesia had made during the Cold War.

Indonesia was a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement, which helped Asian and African nations play an autonomous role in international politics that transcended the Cold War'€™s ideological divide.

Even so, Yudhoyono instructed those in the party'€™s ranks to fully support the government as long as its programs were '€œin line with the people'€™s aspirations'€, while criticizing it and offering solutions when policies were deemed detrimental to the public.

Yudhoyono urged members of the Democratic Party faction in the House to ensure that the 2016 state budget was appropriately used to overcome the economic downturn. He also asked senior party members to listen to the public'€™s cries through social media and in their respective electoral districts.

Meanwhile, Democratic Party lawmaker Ruhut Sitompul said on Wednesday that people from within the party'€™s ranks had also hoped for the return of Yudhoyono as president. '€œI have told this to Pak SBY. He only said that there would be better cadres to replace him in the future,'€ Ruhut said.

Political analyst Hanta Yuda of Poltracking Indonesia told The Jakarta Post that Yudhoyono had made a clever political move by leveraging his reputation at a time when Jokowi seemed to be struggling with public support.

'€œYudhoyono has enough political clout with his party controlling 61 seats in the House. He is flaunting his personal charm as a former president to the public, but also showing the PDI-P [Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle] how to conduct itself outside of the government,'€ Hanta said on Wednesday.

Hanta said that Yudhoyono showed signs of the '€œincumbent syndrome'€, where he was unwilling to play a merely complementary role to the coalition dualism.
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