JAKARTA: Members of the ruling Onward Indonesia Coalition (KIM) have dismissed concerns of Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s lingering influence over some of President Prabowo Subianto’s ministers following their occasional display of loyalty to the former president.
In two separate occasions on Friday (April 11), Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Sakti Wahyu Trenggono and Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin visited Jokowi at his house in Surakarta, Central Java as part of the Aidil Fitri tradition of extending communal bonds, also known as silaturahmi.
Sakti and Budi were among 14 Jokowi administration ministers who retained their positions when Prabowo assumed the presidency in October of last year. They were first appointed as ministers by Jokowi in December 2020 during his second, final term as president.
When asked about the purpose of his visit, Sakti told reporters that he was doing silaturahmi “with my former boss, who is still my boss now”.
Echoing Sakti, Budi also told the media that he visited Jokowi because the former president was “his boss”.
At the time of the visits, Prabowo had just started his five-country tour to the Middle East. Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister Pratikno and Cooperatives Minister Budi Arie Setiadi, who are known as Jokowi loyalists, and Coordinating Food Minister Zulkifli Hasan and Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Bahlil Lahadalia, politicians from Prabowo’s coalition, also visited Jokowi over the Aidil Fitri holiday.
Like Sakti and Budi, they were all also former members of Jokowi’s cabinet.
Their visits sparked criticism from Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) executive Mardani Ali Sera, who said that it was fine to visit a former president but that it was important for cabinet members to remember that there should not be two captains in one boat.
“Our President is Prabowo, and I am sure that when the ministers [visited Jokowi], they had Prabowo’s approval,” Mardani said on Sunday, as quoted from Kompas TV.
“But in the context of governance, I need to remind [everyone] that there cannot be ‘twin suns’, because the impacts of this would be massive.”
The PKS is a more recent addition to Prabowo’s coalition, having joined the alliance after the party's own presidential candidate Anies Baswedan was soundly beaten by Prabowo.
Before Aidil Fitri, Jokowi hosted meetings and a video call with government officials and political figures from his home in Surakarta. This raised questions from the public and observers alike about the extent of his influence over the administration.
Other coalition members, however, have dismissed Mardani’s concern, including the Golkar Party and the National Mandate Party (PAN) whose ministers Bahlil and Zulkifli, respectively, were among those who met with Jokowi for Aidil Fitri.
“I personally don’t see it [as a concern]. We all play by the book and the President is Prabowo,” Golkar politician Dave Laksono told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
PAN politician Eko "Patrio" Hendro Purnomo, meanwhile, said: “Silaturahmi visits are common during Aidil Fitri. There’s no need to make a fuss about it”.
Herzaky Mahendra Putra, spokesperson for the pro-government Democratic Party, said that “it was not unusual” for a minister to visit a former president, noting that party chief patron and former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono also regularly gets such visits.
“These visits are part of the ministers’ work and [I’m] sure they also received inputs that can be implemented on the field,” Herzaky said on Sunday, as quoted by Antara. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
