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View all search resultsAnalysis: Invisible VP Gibran under pressure, eclipsed by his father Jokowi
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President Joko “Jokowi“ Widodo (second from left) pays a visit to sneakers exhibition Jakarta Sneaker Day at Senayan City mall, Central Jakarta, with his eldest son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka (third from left).
(Courtesy of/Presidential palace)
V
ice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka is facing mounting pressure, mostly for underperformance, in the seven months since taking up the job. The latest sign of tension in his relationship with President Prabowo Subianto was when the latter asked former president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to represent him at last week’s funeral ceremony of Pope Francis in the Vatican. This is a job normally reserved for the VP. There was no explanation for why Prabowo gave the assignment to Jokowi, Gibran’s father and the country’s president from 2014 to 2024.
Further damaging Gibran’s public standing is a petition from a group of retired military officers demanding that Prabowo ditch his VP. Interestingly, Prabowo’s office responded to the call from his former military peers. Many other groups have made similar demands in the past, but they were largely ignored by the presidential office.
Gibran rarely makes the news today. He is seen, but infrequently heard. He appears often with Prabowo in many official functions, but never makes statements, with the spotlight always on the President. Without any clear assignment from Prabowo, Gibran lives up to the Indonesian popular description of vice presidents as nothing more than a “spare tire” for the president.
When Gibran makes news, it is almost always for the wrong reason.
The latest is a petition demanding his impeachment signed by more than 300 military officers who have retired from service with ranks of colonel and general. In other words, they are senior officers and were influential during their active years. Many served alongside 73-year-old Prabowo, who was dismissed from the military in 1998 for insubordination.
Prabowo could hardly afford to ignore their eight-point petition, which includes the demand for the dismissal of Gibran on the grounds that his nomination was illegal in the first place.
Gibran, now 37, did not meet the minimum legal age of 40 years to run for the high office, but the Constitutional Court, then chaired by his uncle Anwar Usman, bent electoral law at the last minute in 2023 to allow anyone who had held an elected office to run, irrespective of age. Gibran had served as the elected mayor of Surakarta, Central Java.
