Polemic Of Debt So That Clear, Anies, And Sandiaga Observer Observers Hope For Public Evidence

The pair Anies Baswedan and Sandiaga Uno in the 2017 Pilada (ANTARA)

Jakarta - A political observer from Al Azhar University Indonesia, Andriadi Achmad assessed that Anies Baswedan and Sandiaga Uno need to show the public proof of debt or a letter of agreement so that the polemic between the two when advancing with Sandiaga Uno in the 2017 DKI Jakarta Pilkada becomes clear. Andriadi said that the current political stage does not only require social capital and capital popularity, but very large financial capital.

He said, it is not a secret that to advance in the regency or city regional elections stage requires tens of billions of financial capital, even up to hundreds of billions for the provincial elections. Moreover, the presidential election, it could require financial capital of up to trillions.

According to Andriadi, the large amount of political spending in the regional elections and the presidential election has made the emergence of dealers or investors for these political costs. Both individuals and corporations. "Therefore, the candidates for regional heads who won the political stage, both at the district/city or provincial and presidential levels, did not rule out the possibility of having political debt or being paid by policies that favor investors, depending on how the initial agreement was," said Andriadi to VOI, Saturday, February 11.

Not only that, he continued, recently a new phenomenon emerged for the investors themselves who competed on the political stage. So that there is no misunderstanding, said Andriadi, Sandiaga and Anies must show proof of the debt agreement to the public.

"In the context of Sandiaga Uno's tweet that Anies Baswedan owes Rp50 billion, in my opinion I need to be shown to the public the evidence or document of the debt agreement. So that it is clear whether Anies Baswedan really owes Rp50 billion during the 2017 DKI Jakarta regional election," explained Andriadi. "Because in the context of debt on the political stage it tends to be flexible or does not need to be paid, it again depends on the MoU. Moreover, the political costs are used to finance Anies-Sandi to produce victory," he added.

The Executive Director of PolCom SRC assessed that Sandiaga should not only raise the issue of the debt to the surface, but then his position was not clear. Because of course in this case, Anies Baswedan as a strong enough candidate in the 2024 presidential election was in the negative spotlight, even though the maneuver did not really affect the presidential candidate (readpres) for the protection of the NasDem Party. "It could even be that the support for Anies Baswedan is getting bigger and he is in a highly tyrannized position," said Andriadi. "We remember SBY's 2004 victory and Jokowi's victory in 2014 also experienced a highly tyrannized, humiliated position and so on. In fact, this position has created more sympathy and support from the people," he concluded. Previously, Anies Baswedan clarified the debt of Rp50 billion to his partner in the 2017 DKI Jakarta Pilkada, Sandiaga Uno. According to Anies, when he advanced in the DKI Pilgub with Sandiaga, there were many donations that came both known and unknown. Of these donations, said Anies, there were direct donations. Where the donors or campaign support asked to be recorded as debt.

"There is a loan, actually not a loan, the support provider asks to be recorded as debt. So, the support that asks to be recorded as debt," Anies said in a broadcast on Merry Riana's Youtube channel, Friday, February 10.

Anies said Sandiaga Uno acted as a guarantor not as a lender. He said the Rp50 billion came from a third party. However, he did not reveal who the third party gave the donation was.

"That's support, Mr. Sandi's guarantor. So the money is not from Mr. Sandi, it is a third party who supports it, then I stated that it should be recorded as a debt," said Anies. However, if he and Sandiaga fail to win the 2017 DKI Pilkada, it will be recorded as a debt and must be returned. However, he said that the Rp50 billion debt did not have to be paid because they won in the 2017 DKI Pilkada. "So, that's what happened. Once the election is finished, win, it is finished," said Anies. The NasDem Party presidential candidate (readpres) admits he was surprised, why this issue was re-revealed. Anies is ready to show the agreement document if it is necessary and becomes a problem.

"There is a document, if one day it needs to be seen, it's okay, because there is nothing extraordinary there. So there is no debt that must be repaid because the Pilkada is over. It becomes strange when it is now discussed," explained Anies.