The tight competition among political parties to win the 2024 general election does not necessarily mean politicians are always in tension, let alone hostile toward each other.
By
KURNIA YUNITA RAHAYU
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KOMPAS/RONY ARIYANTO NUGROHO
Meeting and discussion of a number of the Chairpersons of the Election Winning Body (Bapilu) of political parties with the editorial staff of Kompas Daily and Kompas R&D regarding the results of the Kompas Research and Development national leadership survey at the Kompas Tower, Jakarta, Thursday (3/11/2022).
The tight competition among political parties to win the 2024 general election does not necessarily mean politicians are always in tension, let alone hostile toward each other. They can still mingle in a warm atmosphere with laughter. This was seen when the heads of campaign teams for the political parties gathered at the Kompas Tower in Jakarta on Thursday (3/11/2022) afternoon.
Politicians, both from political parties that have seats in the House of Representatives and those that do not sat in the same room to listen and discuss the results of the Kompas Research and Development (Litbang) National Leadership Survey for the October 2022 period. The vote gains for each political party in the 2019 election did not differentiate position and did not create distance among the politicians who came to represent the 16 political parties.
The political parties present comprised the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the Gerindra Party, the Golkar Party, the Nasdem Party, the National Awakening Party (PKB), the Democratic Party, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the United Development Party (PPP). In addition, there were also the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI), the Crescent Star Party (PBB), the Perindo Party, the Labor Party, the Ummat Party, the Hanura Party and the Gelora Party.
The discussion, which was held by Kompas Daily, was also attended by the deputy general manager of Kompas Daily Budiman Tanuredjo, chief editor of Kompas Daily Sutta Dharmasaputra and deputy chief editor of Kompas Daily Tri Agung Kristanto.
Even though the two hour meeting ran fluidly, it also featured moments of sarcasm. After listening to the explanation of the results of the political party electability survey, politicians who were usually vocal when asked about politics were silent, then threw the question to each other when asked for a response.
Chairman of the PDI-P campaign team Bambang Wuryanto, for example, threw his chance to comment to Sufmi Dasco Ahmad, chairman of Gerindra’s campaign team. However, Dasco was also reluctant to answer and threw it to another party. "It should be the Democrats. The Democrats are the ones who know best why it goes up and why it goes down," Dasco said jokingly.
As if he did not want to lose, deputy chairman of the Golkar Party, Ahmad Doli Kurnia, made another witty comment. "Those who are the happiest with the results of this survey should be the first to comment," he said.
KOMPAS/RONY ARIYANTO NUGROHO
A number of Heads of the Election Winning Body (Bapilu) of political parties met and discussed with the editorial staff of Kompas Daily and Kompas R&D regarding the results of a survey on the national leadership of Kompas Research and Development at the Kompas Tower, Jakarta, Thursday (3/11/2022).
Referring to the results of the Kompas Research and Development survey, October 2022, the top electability ranks for Indonesia’s political parties were still occupied by the PDI-P (21.1 percent), Gerindra (16.2 percent), the Democrats (14 percent) and Golkar (7.9 percent). Of the four parties, Gerindra and the Democrats experienced an increase in electability compared with the same survey in June 2022. The electability of the Gerindra Party rose 3.7 percent, while the electability of the Democratic Party rose 2.4 percent.
Meanwhile, Golkar's electability fell 2.4 percent and the PDI-P's electability fell 1.7 percent.
At the same time, in the middle board there were the PKS with 6.3 percent electability, the PKB (5.6 percent), Perindo (4.5 percent), Nasdem (4.3 percent) and PAN (3.1 percent). Then, in the lowest rank the PPP (1.7 percent), Hanura Party (0.8 percent), PBB (0.5 percent), PSI (0.5 percent), Republican Party (0.6 percent), Labor Party (0.4 percent) and the Gelora Party (0.2 percent).
Dag-dig-dug
PAN deputy secretary-general Ibnu M Bilal admitted that the exposure of the survey results actually triggered a different response from each party. Besides the happiness for certain parties, the survey results were stressful for some. “We from PAN are in the dag-dig-dug [a state of nervousness], because every survey agency puts us at almost the same number. However, in every election, our vote count is always higher than in the surveys, he said.
A similar sentiment was shared by chairman of the PPP Central Board (DPP) Achmad Baidowi. Before asking questions about the demographics of the survey respondents, he had time to send a short message to the discussion guide. When the guide informed the group about the message, all the politicians greeted him with laughter.
"Well, someone doesn't want his question to be known," said Dasco.
The same thing happened to PKB deputy secretary-general Syaiful Huda. When he found out that the number of survey respondents who had not made a choice was only about 12 percent, he couldn't believe it and asked about it repeatedly. According to him, with these figures, the election results could actually be drawn.
"Well, it turns out that the public has finished voting, but that's okay, we will still pursue the Democrats," he said with a laugh.
When met after the discussion, Doli said that this was the first forum ever to bring together all the heads of the party campaign teams in one place. This meeting shows that the interest to win the 2024 general election cannot diminish the friendship among politicians. This means that future competition is also expected to be in line with this attitude.
“This is part of us maintaining national cohesiveness. On a human level, we are people who have known each other for a long time, even if it is in the interests of political parties, everyone has their own responsibilities," said Doli.
