Cak Imin Refuses To Participate In The Sudirman Said-Ahmad Ali Polemic

Vice Presidential Candidate Muhaimin Iskandar

JAKARTA - Candidate for vice president number 1 Muhaimin Iskandar (Cak Imin) admitted that he did not want to interfere in the polemic of differences of opinion between the Co-Captain National Team for Winning Anies-Muhaimin (Timnas AMIN) Sudirman Said and Deputy Chairman of the Nasdem Party Ahmad Ali.

According to the General Chairperson of the PKB, the chaos between Sudirman Said and Ahmad Ali is a personal matter. Now, it is reported that the two have reconciled.

"I don't know, it's a personal matter, yes. Let it be. I heard the news that it was peaceful. Just personal matters," said Cak Imin in Penjaringan, North Jakarta, Tuesday, January 2.

Similarly, Deputy Secretary General of PKB Syaiful Huda emphasized that the communication between Sudirman Said and the Ganjar-Mahfud camp opposed by Ahmad Ali was personal.

This is because the PKB as one of the coalition parties for the presidential and vice-presidential candidates number 1 was not involved in the communication process.

"The nature is still between individuals. That's normal. In principle, about personal relationships that have been good and there are no problems," Huda told reporters.

The AMIN national team is reported to have experienced divisions due to differences of opinion among its figures. The split occurred after a difference of views between Sudirman Said, who is the co-captain of the AMIN national team and the National Team's Head Coach Amin, Ahmad Ali, who is also the Deputy Chairperson of the Nasdem Party.

This difference is related to the external communication strategy with other candidate pairs in the 2024 Presidential Election.

Initially, Ahmad Ali thought that the Amin national team did not need to communicate externally with other candidate pairs at this time. This is related to the suspicion that several members of the Amin national team communicated with candidate pair number 3 Ganjar Pranowo-Mahfud MD to face candidate pair number 2 Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka.

Ahmad Ali emphasized that the AMIN national team will not be allied with any of the candidate pairs. For him, all parties are competitors in the 2024 presidential election which will be held on February 14, 2024. Even if there is cooperation, Ahmad Ali stated that the AMIN national team will ally with the people to win.

However, Sudirman Said did not agree with the opinion. He stated that Ahmad Ali's statement could actually harm the winning efforts being made by the AMIN national team.

Sudirman Said called the statement provocative and could create disharmony among volunteers and supporters of Anies-Cak Imin, even among supporting parties.

Sudirman Said criticized Ahmad Ali's views which were considered different from the views of the NasDem elite, including Surya Paloh. He considered the elites to have a wider perspective in managing political competitions and not seeing opponents as enemies.