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Politicians nudge Jokowi to appoint new spokesman
After Fadjroel Rachman's recent appointment as Indonesian ambassador, President Joko Widodo has faced calls from politicians to quickly appoint a new presidential spokesman to fill the void.
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President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo gestures during a virtual dialogue with 50 global business leaders held by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Jakarta on Nov. 25, 2020. (Presidential Palace Press Bureau/Muchlis Jr)
E
arlier this week, presidential spokesman Fadjroel Rachman was appointed Indonesia’s ambassador to Kazakhstan, leaving President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to search for another person to fill in the paradoxical post.
Prior to his inauguration, Fadjroel had sought to downplay concerns about the President not having a mouthpiece, saying there were other state officials – State Secretary Pratikno, Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung and Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko, as well as a host of special staffers – who would competently fill the void.
“There are actually quite a few who can carry out the task of conveying information from the [Presidential] Palace to the public,” Fadjroel said last week, as quoted by kompas.com.
Since his swearing-in ceremony on Monday, however, pressure from the political rank and file has been piling on Jokowi to seek out a new spokesman for the Palace.
A senior member of the Democratic Party’s campaign team, Kamhar Lakumani, said on Wednesday that it was important for the President to find a replacement for Fadjroel as soon as possible.
“We certainly don’t want the public to get any conflicting information or risk it becoming a spectacle, if, say, the President annuls a statement or contradicts information from a ministry or vice versa, just because there is no one coordinating,” he said, as quoted by kompas.com.
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