Urging The Presidential Threshold To Be Abolished, Fahri Hamzah Says Opportunities To Advance In The Presidential Election Do Not Belong To Java Alone

Illustration-(Photo: DOK ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The former deputy chairman of the Indonesian House of Representatives for the 2014-2019 period, Fahri Hamzah, asked the government to open up opportunities for regional sons and daughters to advance in the presidential and vice presidential candidate exchanges in the 2024 presidential election.

According to Fahri, it is time for the people to elect a leader who has the ability to manage the country, both in the executive and judiciary. He supports the regions to nominate their own presidential candidates.

"There are many sons and daughters of Indonesia, from Sabang to Merauke among Indonesia's population of almost 300 million, who deserve to be president. Therefore, the central government should no longer block the aspirations of the regions. Let the regions propose their own pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates, " said Fahri Hamzah, Friday, December 3.

Fahri said, with the variety of diversity that Indonesia has, the leadership of regional sons and daughters must be explored. Because, he said, the opportunity to perform does not only belong to people from Jakarta or on the island of Java, but to all regions such as Papua, Aceh, Sumatra, West Papua, Sulawesi, Kalimantan, Sumbawa, Lombok, Bali, NTT, Ternate, and Tidore.

"For this reason, the 20 percent presidential threshold rule must be abolished because it prevents regional sons and daughters from advancing to become presidential candidates," said the Deputy Chairperson of the Indonesian Gelora Party DPN.

"They (the sons and daughters of the region, ed) should be facilitated to appear on the national stage as the next President of the Republic of Indonesia," he continued.

Fahri considered that the discussion regarding the elimination of the threshold in order to accommodate regional sons and daughters to become national leaders, was very important to be prioritized first. This is so that infrastructure does not limit the appearance of the best local sons and daughters for the nation.

"Instead of engineering the leadership election process in an unaspirational manner and relying only on modified infrastructure to limit the appearance of Indonesian sons and daughters throughout our country. Once again, do not block the aspirations of the regions," said Fahri.