Gathering The Leaders Of Political Parties At The Palace, Jokowi Is Considered Wanting To Defuse Criticism From The Coalition

JAKARTA - President Jokowi is reported to have gathered high-ranking political parties (political parties) in his coalition at the State Palace today. Looking at the current political conditions, there are goals that can be drawn from the meeting.

A political observer from Al-Azhar University, Ujang Komarudin, believes that Jokowi's efforts to hold a meeting with top political party officials who support the government are because he wants to reduce criticism from his own coalition.

"Jokowi's move by bringing together political party officials is to re-consolidate the strength of the coalition so that the government can run safely," Ujang told VOI, Wednesday, August 25.

Recently, a number of high-ranking coalition parties have criticized the government's performance. Starting from the General Chair of Nasdem Surya Paloh, to PDI-P officials such as Puan Maharani to the PDIP chairman Megawati Soekarnoputri.

This criticism, said Ujang, is the party's way of saving public trust in their respective parties in order to maintain electability towards the 2024 General Election.

After all, political contestation is a battle of each party. It is believed that each party already has its own presidential candidate to run in 2024. Likewise with the 2024 Pilleg.

Unfortunately, currently public confidence in Jokowi's performance continues to decline. Many people view that Jokowi has not been able to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic until the economic downturn caused by the community.

"The coalition parties are currently in a dilemma. Public confidence in Jokowi's performance has decreased, especially in handling the pandemic. This will certainly have an impact on the coalition political parties. Therefore, they are criticizing their own government for the sake of the party's election," said Ujang.

Jokowi, according to Ujang, felt he had to stem the criticism to save his government until his term of office expired in 2024. This was realized by bringing together the leaders of his coalition parties.

"At the consolidation at the Palace, Jokowi will re-glue the strength of the coalition parties. Because, if not embraced, these criticisms will escalate. Issues that go down the middle of the road will grow bigger. The government is not conducive, Jokowi's leadership will be threatened," he concluded.

For information, the Jokowi-Ma'ruf Amin government has the support of the majority of coalition parties during the 2019 Election. The political parties in coalition with the government are PDI-P, Golkar Party, Nasdem Party, Gerindra Party, National Awakening Party (PKB), United Development Party. (PPP), the Indonesian Unity Party (Perindo), the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI), PKPI, and the Crescent Star Party (PBB), and Hanura.