JAKARTA: Former president Joko 'Jokowi; Widodo (pic) said his recent meeting with Yogyakarta Governor Hamengku Buwono X was not politically motivated, despite the Sultan having previously offered to help mend Jokowi’s relations with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), which recently stooped to an all-time low.
On Wednesday (Jan 15), Jokowi went to the Yogyakarta Sultanate’s Keraton Kilen Palace to have a two-hour private audience with Hamengku Buwono X.
Jokowi told reporters once he returned to his hometown in Surakarta, Central Java, that he and the Sultan discussed a variety of topics, but that the two did not touch upon politics.
“I have not met [the Sultan] for a long time. So, the meeting was just part of silaturahmi [extending communal bonds]. I came because he invited me,” Jokowi was quoted by Kompas as saying.
“We spoke for almost two hours about many, many things, but mostly geopolitics and the global economy,” he added.
Hamengku Buwono X also declined to tell reporters what he discussed with Jokowi, emphasiSing that their meeting was private.
“We did not [discuss politics],” the Sultan said, as quoted by Antara.
“I can’t [reveal what the meeting was about], it was private. I don’t want to comment any more than that.”
Before Wednesday, the last time Jokowi met with the Sultan was Jan 28, 2024, when his ties with the PDI-P began to sour as he tacitly endorsed the presidential candidate from Gerindra Party, Prabowo Subianto, who ran with Jokowi’s eldest son Gibran Rakabuming Raka in February’s election.
Hamengku Buwono X later said that he was willing to play a bridge-builder role between Jokowi and PDI-P chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri by facilitating a meeting between the two politicians.
The meeting, however, never came to fruition, and Jokowi’s relationship with Megawati and the PDI-P has since had an ugly public falling-out. It came to a head last month when Megawati officially expelled Jokowi, Gibran and Jokowi’s son-in-law, North Sumatra governor-elect Bobby Nasution, from the party.
Days after the dismissal, PDI-P secretary-general Hasto Kristiyanto, a close aide to Megawati, was named a bribery suspect by the new leaders of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), who were nominated by Jokowi in his final days in office.
This raised suspicions among PDI-P politicians that the investigation into Hasto was politically motivated and that Jokowi was seeking ways to prevent Megawati from being reelected as party chair in an upcoming congress in April.
Political analyst Wasisto Raharjo Jati of the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) said it is difficult to deny political nuances stemming from Jokowi’s recent meeting with Hamengku Buwono X and that the former president was likely asking for advice from the Yogyakarta Sultan.
“The Sultan is still a figure the nation’s political elites seek council from,” Wasisto said on Thursday.
“That [Jokowi’s meeting] with him was sudden and kept private, it definitely showed that there were political nuances.”
Meanwhile, political expert Yoes Kenawas said that Jokowi’s meeting with Hamengku Buwono X served his interest of maintaining his relevance in politics and the public sphere, since Jokowi no longer has an active office and is not an official card-carrying member of any party.
“Jokowi has not been getting as much attention of late, and any coverage he gets [in the media] tends to be negative,” Yoes said on Thursday.
“He could say that he didn’t discuss politics, but a meeting between the two ‘kings of Java’ will for sure grab the public’s attention.”
Yoes went on to say that Jokowi, through his association with the Sultan, could also be actively seeking to “rebrand” himself as more than just the country’s seventh president and the father of the sitting vice president.
“Previous presidents have something to cling on to once they step out of office. Megawati and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono chair their own parties while B.J. Habibie and Abdurrahman ‘Gus Dur’ Wahid have their reputation as national icons. Jokowi could be trying to replicate the latter,” Yoes added. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
