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View all search results‘It’s my call’: Megawati pulls rank at PDI-P bash
Matriarch underlines party’s right to nominate candidates.
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ndonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chair Megawati Soekarnoputri sought to reassert her authority at the party’s 50th anniversary gathering on Tuesday, resisting pressure to announce the PDI-P’s nominee for the 2024 presidential election and telling President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to focus on his presidential duties.
Jokowi, Vice President Ma’ruf Amin and a slew of Cabinet ministers attended the party’s golden jubilee in Jakarta, which brought together thousands of cadres from throughout the nation. Unlike previous occasions, however, Megawati did not invite the leaders of other political parties, making the event a strictly “familial” affair.
Throughout her two-and-a-half-hour speech, the former president took light jabs at the incumbent, whom she endorsed for the presidency in March 2014.
“Let me apologize in advance, but who knew Pak Jokowi back then? When people started asking who I would nominate, [I told them to] wait. That is why it wasn’t announced at a celebration like this,” she said, smiling.
Megawati described the years leading up to the 2024 general election as an “anomaly” as she stressed her opposition to proposals to delay the polls and extend the presidential term.
“If [someone is] elected twice – sorry then, twice it is,” Megawati said. “It isn’t because Jokowi is not smart enough.”
The party chairwoman went on to recount the time her father, the nation’s founding father Sukarno, was appointed president for life. She said that decision led the country into a period of political turmoil.
