My view on the president's partisanship, ahead of the 2024 election published by Tempo today, started with questions: How can actor with strong legitimacy—obtained directly through the mandate of the people and elections—intend to lower his own position to become partisan, bound, and involved in party political compromises? Is it indeed impossible to achieve absolute neutrality within the electoral and party systems of modern democracies?'
Full op-ed please see here
My op-ed this morning published by The Jakarta Post:
'The current political landscape presents a stark contrast for two primary reasons. First, there is no political figure with dramatic, influential popularity as Jokowi had in his two races. Three names that appeared in many surveys put Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo, Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto and former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan in the lead by a significant margin.
Second, the grand alliance formed under Jokowi’s umbrella has complicated matters. It confuses the allies’ members because within the grand alliance there are several names of presidential hopefuls: Prabowo, Ganjar and Golkar Party chairman Airlangga Hartarto. The sharp cleavage hit when the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) declared its own member, Ganjar, as its presidential pick, while Golkar and the Gerindra Party have proposed Airlangga and Prabowo respectively.'
Full op-ed please see this
By Rendy Pahrun Wadipalapa
By Rendy Pahrun Wadipalapa
Glad to share my op-ed published by Harian Kompas this morning. I discuss the big elephant in the room: Jokowi and his inferiority against PDI-P. Political cartels, a very common scheme played by Indonesian parties in the post-New Order settings, is one of the structural factors that need to be analysed.
