Questioning Jokowi's Netrality, TKN Duga Anies Doesn't Understand The President's Campaign

Deputy Chairperson Of TKN Prabowo-Gibran, Habiburokhman. Photo: Nailin In Saroh/VOI

JAKARTA - Deputy Chairperson of TKN Prabowo-Gibran, Habiburokhman suspects that Presidential Candidate number 1, Anies Baswedan, does not understand the rules that allow the president to campaign and side with one of the candidate pairs who contest the presidential election (pilpres). Habiburokhman said this in response to Anies who questioned President Jokowi's neutrality in the 2024 presidential election. He invited Anies to have an opinion. "Yes, go ahead, we are talking about regulations, talking about the constitution, talking about laws and talking about PKPU regulations, what is being discussed is not a neutral matter or not neutral. If the term is not an invitation law, it is not that, but whether it violates making policies that are profitable or detrimental to one of the candidate pairs. Well, that needs to be underlined," said Habiburokhman at the TKN Media Center, Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, Wednesday, January 24. According to the Deputy Chairman of Commission III of the DPR, the gradation of neutral or non-neutral terms varies. For example, the TNI-Polri are absolute neutral, they cannot vote at all. Then the Governor of BI or the director of BUMN, they have the right to vote but cannot participate in the campaign. "If the president, it is not an official who is not allowed to participate in the campaign. So, we return it to Mr. Jokowi what will be and we are sure that Jokowi is a person with great integrity. As for the use of his authority, I am sure he will not do what is called abuse of power," said Habiburokhman. Therefore, the Deputy Chairperson of the Gerindra Party also questioned the figure who gave Anies unclear information regarding the rules that allow the president to exercise his voting rights. "So I don't understand the context of Mr. Anies' understanding. I suspect Mr. Anies doesn't understand the details of issues like this, so the diction that was conveyed is to question whether you are willing," said Habiburokhman. "So I don't know who gave Anies input. Maybe it's not complete, it's not complete, it's not clear so what Mr. Anies said in my opinion is absurd," he continued. Previously, presidential candidate number 1, Anies Baswedan responded to President Joko Widodo's statement that he was allowed to campaign and could side with one of the election participants. Anies did not want to judge Jokowi's statement. He only left it to the public whether Jokowi's claims regarding the president could take sides and campaign against the rules or not. "We leave it to the rule of law, according to the legal rules. This is not taste, I agree or disagree. How are the legal rules? Because we want this country to be a state of law," said Anies in Yogyakarta, Wednesday, January 24. The former governor of DKI Jakarta asked constitutional law experts to express his opinion on the statement of Gibran Rakabuming Raka's father, the candidate for vice president number 2. "If the rule of law says it's not allowed, it means it's not allowed, if the rule of law says it's okay, then it's okay," said Anies.

However, Anies admitted that Jokowi's statement regarding partiality was not in line with his instructions to state officials who had to be neutral. "Previously what we heard was neutral, protecting everything, facilitating everything. So we leave it to the Indonesian people to digest and assess," he added.