We were treated to a refreshing episode in the nation’s political drama this week. Regardless of whether the scene was genuine or orchestrated, we watched the elite locked in an embrace, not a fight.
By
·3 minutes read
The political episode consists of three acts. In the first act, showed chairman Surya Paloh of the Nasdem Party, which backed Joko “Jokowi” Widodo-Ma\'ruf Amin in the presidential election, embracing president Sohibul Iman of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), which had backed Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Uno. In the second act, President Jokowi commented on Surya and Sohibul’s embrace, which elicited a response from Surya. In the third act, Jokowi and Surya embraced while Sohibul Iman and Jokowi vigorously shook hands at Nasdem’s 8th anniversary event.
Speaking at the event, President Jokowi emphasized that embracing was a good tradition because it derived from an intention to maintain unity, harmony and fulfill state commitments (Kompas, 12/11/2019). Amidst the heightened polarization in the aftermath of the 2014 and 2019 presidential elections, the political episode engendered peace. Like a theatrical play, the episode closed with a happy ending to cheers from the audience. "Peace is beautiful" and "Our politics is maturing" were the kinds of comments that appeared in the timeline on Twitter.
Power struggles traditionally occur in the opposite manner, and can even end tragically. Political actors are antagonists. They do not act to unite, and can even act to destroy in their attempt to seize power. As Plautus has described, people often stab other people.
Even friendships are often formed in the interests of political pragmatism. They might be friends now, but opponents at another time. Gaius Julius Caesar, who was betrayed and killed by his best friend, Marcus Junius Brutus Caepio, is a legendary tale in politics. It is apparently not much different here, as seen on observing the patterns of cooperation and power struggles across the archipelago. Pragmatism often dominates, rather than idealism.
The cooperation among political parties has been very fluid in modern Indonesian history and through the presidential elections in 1999, 2004, 2009, 2014 and 2019. There are those who say that coalitions are built simply to gain votes (vote-seeking), push certain policies (policy-seeking) or just to fight over the budget (office-seeking).
The political scene of embraces that was played out by Joko Widodo, Surya Paloh and Sohibul Iman at least reminds us that there is a human side to politics. This is an example of homo homini socius, as Seneca said, which means “man is a friend to fellow men”, and not a manifestation of homo homini lupus, “man is a wolf to other men”. It is time for us to popularize embracing, not punching, and certainly not stabbing.