Palace: President Jokowi's Statement May Be Widely Misaligned

JAKARTA - Presidential Special Staff Coordinator Ari Dwipayana assessed President Joko Widodo's (Jokowi) statement that the president could campaign, had been misinterpreted a lot.

"The President's statement at Halim, last Wednesday, has been widely misinterpreted. What was conveyed by the President in the context of answering media questions about the ministers who participated in the success team," said Ari Dwipayana in a short message reported by ANTARA, Thursday, January 25.

He said the President, in response to the question, gave an explanation, especially regarding the rules of play in democracy for ministers or presidents.

"In the President's view, as stipulated in Article 281 of Law No. 7 of 2017 concerning elections, election campaigns may include presidents, vice presidents, ministers, and also regional heads and deputy regional heads. This means that the president may campaign. This is clearly emphasized in the law," said Ari.

However, he said, there are conditions that must be met if the president participates in campaigning. First, not using facilities in his position, except for security facilities for state officials according to applicable regulations. And second, undergoing leave outside of state dependents.

He said that with the permission of the president to campaign, it means that the Election Law also guarantees the president's right to have political preferences in certain parties or pairs of candidates as election participants who are campaigned for, while still following the fences that have been regulated in the law.

"Once again, what President Jokowi said is not new. Corridor regulations related to this already exist in the Election Law. Likewise, his political practices can also be checked in the history of elections after reforms," he said.

"Previous presidents, starting from the 5th and 6th presidents, who also have clear political preferences with political parties they support and campaign for to win the party they support," said Ari.

In addition, he said, in his statement at Halim Perdanakusuma Air Base, last Wednesday President Widodo also emphasized that all public officials/political officials must stick to the rules of the game.

"If the rules allow it, please follow it. If the rules prohibit it, it should not be carried out. That means, the President reiterated that every public official/political official must follow/compliance with the rules of the game in democracy," he explained.

Previously, President Joko Widodo said that the president or minister had democratic and political rights that allowed them to participate in the election campaign as long as they did not use state facilities.

Jokowi said this was in response to a number of ministers of the Advanced Indonesia Cabinet who entered as a successful team to support the presidential and vice presidential candidate pairs participating in the 2024 presidential election.

"The right of democracy, every person's political rights. Every minister is the same, the most important thing is that the president can campaign, you can take sides. Yes," said Jokowi at Halim Perdanakusuma Air Base, Jakarta, yesterday.

Jokowi said the president and minister are public officials as well as political officials and are allowed by law to campaign, as long as they are on leave and do not use state facilities.

"Yes, I may campaign, but I must take time off and not use state facilities," he said.