Observer: Puan Maharani Should Apologize Regarding Her Statement About West Sumatra

JAKARTA - The statement by the Chairman of the PDIP DPP Puan Maharani hopes that West Sumatra will become a province that supports the political Pancasila. In the end, the gubernatorial candidate pair and their deputy Mulyadi-Ali Mukhni returned the support that had been given by PDIP. The return of this support made the party bearing the bull symbol abstain from the 2020 West Sumatra Pilkada.

Although PDIP has stated abstention, there is one thing that needs to be done by Puan, namely apologizing. This was conveyed by a political observer from the Political Research Center of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) Firman Noor. According to him, this apology was necessary so that the polemic on the statement would stop rolling.

"Actually (apologizing, red) is something quite elegant to do," said Firman when contacted by VOI, Tuesday, September 8.

He said the PDIP should not make a defense regarding statements which he considered controversial.

It is known, since the controversy over Puan's statement surfaced, a number of the party's political elites had conveyed various statements if Puan had Minang blood and had no intention of hurting the people of West Sumatra.

One of the statements made by Arteria Dahlan, who is also the Deputy Chairperson of the Minang Family Association (IKM). He said the Minang people should look after and boast about Puan, who is the son of PDIP general chairman Megawati Soekarnoputri from Taufiq Kiemas who is of Minang blood.

"It should be a Minang person, take care of Puan, she is an asset and at the same time the pride of the Minang people. We must protect it. Right, Minang people should be proud, especially proud Minang women, to have the first speaker of the DPR who is a woman, and also a Minang woman," said Arteria in her written statement. some time ago.

Going back to the Word, this kind of statement is really unnecessary. He considered, Puan should apologize because his statement actually caused a polemic in the community.

"There are many ways to apologize, yes, and show that expression. If it can be done then it will be even better, in order to unite this nation to be more solid," he said.

Meanwhile, Executive Director of Indonesia Political Review, Ujang Komarudin, assessed that if this kind of blunder occurs again and there is no resolution, then what happens is that PDIP could lose a seat in West Sumatra. Whereas currently in the West Sumatra Provincial DPRD, the party bearing the bull symbol has three seats.

"You have to be more careful. If the blunder continues, you can not get a seat in West Sumatra. (This statement, red) could be a red light for PDIP," said Ujang.

Apart from that, in the long term, Puan's statement will cause difficulties during the election for PDIP. So, the most appropriate solution is for Puan to apologize and take a religious approach that is easily accepted by the people there.

"If Puan's statement keeps rolling, the next Election will be troublesome. I'm sorry for the solution," he said.

Previously, Puan's statement which culminated in this polemic was conveyed on Wednesday, September 2 when she read out the recommendation from the PDIP to the regional head candidates. After announcing the recommendation of support for the Mulyadi-Ali Mukhni pair, the son of PDIP General Chair Megawati Soekarnoputri hopes that West Sumatra can become a province that supports Pancasila.

"Hopefully West Sumatra can become a province that supports the Pancasila state," said Puan at that time.

Before long, this statement became a polemic and led to the return of the PDIP recommendation by Mulyadi-Ali Mukhni and this was confirmed by the Secretary General of PDIP Hasto Kristiyanto.

"The PDI-P would like to thank Mulyadi. From the start I suspected that Mulyadi was not strong in his leadership position, so he could easily waver in the dialectic of ideology," he said in a written statement on Sunday, September 6.

Furthermore, after the return of this recommendation, the Chairperson of the West Sumatra PDIP DPD Alex Indra Lukman stated from the results of the internal meeting that the PDIP did not participate in the West Sumatra Pilgub event.