President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo met with the leaders of five political parties in the government coalition on Sunday, 2 April 2023. A grand coalition is being initiated.
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KOMPAS EDITOR
·3 minutes read
DOKUMENTASI HUMAS PAN
(From left) General Chair of the PKB Muhaimin Iskandar, General Chair of the Gerindra Party Prabowo Subianto, President Joko Widodo, General Chair of the Golkar Party Airlangga Hartarto, General Chair of PAN Zulkifli Hasan, and Acting General Chair of PPP Mardiono attending the Ramadhan Gathering at the PAN DPP Office, Jakarta, Sunday (2/4/2023).
The idea to build a grand coalition was born from that meeting. The five political party leaders that were present included National Mandate Party (PAN) chairman Zulkifli Hasan, Golkar Party chairman Airlangga Hartarto, National Awakening Party (PKB) chairman Muhaimin Iskandar, Gerindra Party chairman Prabowo Subianto and United Development Party (PPP) acting chairman Mardiyono.
NasDem Party chairman Surya Paloh and Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri were absent from the meeting. According to Zulkifli, the two were still overseas.
The meeting between political party leaders went well. It was also necessary to build interparty cooperation to overcome the fundamental problems the nation is currently facing. Building political cooperation is a must, as our political system requires the cooperation of political parties to nominate the presidential and vice presidential candidates. The presidential threshold requires political parties to work together to nominate these candidates. Hence, the right to nominate presidential and vice presidential candidates are in the hands of political parties.
We hope not only for political cooperation in nominating presidential and vice presidential candidates, but also for a coalition with a shared agenda to solve this nation’s problems. At least some of the problems that Indonesia faces must be on this coalition’s agenda. These problems include social inequality, severe ecological destruction and corruption from the time of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) until now. Moreover, there is also the development of artificial intelligence (AI) for human existence and the development of the nation.
DOKUMENTASI HUMAS PAN
Minister of Defense who is also General Chair of the Gerindra Party Prabowo Subianto attending the Ramadhan Gathering at the PAN DPP Office, Jakarta, Sunday (2/4/2023).
Discussing the presidential and vice presidential nominees is important because it adheres to a constitutional agenda that must be followed. However, the government coalition must not forget to resolve the nation’s agenda. The coalition must have solutions to the concrete problems faced by this country.
Will corruption continue to run rampant in this country?
Corruption is one example. Since 1743 during the VOC era, corruption has remained rife. A 1743 report published in London, titled “A Description of Holland, or The Present of the United Province”, reported that many VOC ships had sunk due to overloading. Many VOC wayward officials (oknum) were promised goods in return. In 1805, the Governor of the East Coast of Java, Nicolas Engelhard, said in a report that he had become rich because of bribes from natives who wanted an official post.
History shows that corruption is ingrained in this nation and that it still occurs to this day. The problem is, will corruption continue to run rampant in this country? This is one of the country’s agendas that must be resolved and discussed during meetings on the coalition’s agenda.
