Political Safari, Airlangga Ready To Nyapres 2024

Airlangga Hartarto (Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - The general chairman of the Golkar Party, Airlangga Hartarto, seems ready to run as a presidential candidate in the upcoming 2024 presidential election. Later he began to regularly meet with party leaders.

Airlangga held a meeting with PPP chairman Suharso Monoarfa at the Golkar Party DPP office, Slipi, West Jakarta, Tuesday, March 30. After some time ago he also met with the general chairman of NasDem Surya Paloh and the General Chairperson of Gerindra, Prabowo Subianto.

Airlangga admitted that his name began to stick out and was promoted by the Golkar Party to become the 2024 presidential candidate at the 2019 National Conference. Then, this decision was also strengthened in the National Meeting of the Arts which was just held.

"Yes, if the name has been raised in the National Conference and it will certainly be strengthened in the National Meeting of Parties," said Airlangga at the Golkar Party DPP, Slipi, West Jakarta, Saturday, March 6.

Airlangga's statement was strengthened by cadres. Golkar Party Deputy Chairman Ahmad Doli Kurnia said his party's internal cadres wanted the general chairman to become a presidential candidate in the 2024 elections.

This was conveyed by Doli in response to the issue of exploring a joint convention between the Golkar Party and the NasDem Party.

"Regarding the presidential election, until now, the aspirations of the existing Golkar Party members are only the desire to nominate Pak Airlangga as a presidential candidate. So we have not thought of anything else, apart from that," said Doli Wednesday night, March 3.

The exploration of the convention reportedly took place when Airlangga met with the Chairman of the NasDem Party, Surya Paloh, on February 14. At that time, Airlangga visited Surya on Kali Age Island, Thousand Islands.

According to Doli, the meeting between Airlangga and the Chairman of the NasDem Party, Surya Paloh, was an ordinary friendship as a fellow chairman of a political party. He said Airlangga also met Chairman of the United Development Party Suharso Monoarfa and General Chair of the Gerindra Party Prabowo Subianto.

In addition, the Community Organization (Ormas) for Mutual Cooperation (MKGR) has stated that it supports Airlangga as a presidential candidate in the 2024 Presidential Election (Pilpres).

This was stated by the Head of the DPP Ormas MKGR 2020-2025 period Adies Kadir at the inauguration of the DPP organization's management, Friday night, March 19.

"For the MKGR Ormas, the main cadre referred to is none other than Mr. Airlangga Hartarto," said Adies.

PDKT Airlangga to PPP

Airlangga Hartarto appeared intimate when entertaining PPP Chairman Suharso Monoarfa in his office. The meeting was even touted as the politics of orange rice.

According to Airlangga, the Golkar and PPP parties have the same color and name. In terms of color, he said, the Golkar logo is yellow with a green leafy banyan tree. Meanwhile, the PPP logo is green with an image of the Kaaba and a yellow screen.

"In terms of name, Golkar Party Golongan Karya. Kekaryaan means development. Meanwhile, the United Development Party, we can call it the United Kingdom Party," said Airlangga.

Responding to Airlangga's exploration, Political Observer from the University of Al-Azhar Indonesia, Ujang Komarudin, assessed that the political gathering between the Golkar chairman and the political parties was good to build a coalition ahead of the 2024 General Election.

Moreover, the Coordinating Minister for the Economy has been mandated in the Golkar National Conference as a presidential candidate in 2024. So it is important to conduct an early assessment.

"Because the main basis was, the support of party structures and cadres. Airlangga here and there, it is good to establish cooperation in the presidential election, "said Ujang, Wednesday, March 30.

With early exploration, according to Ujang, common perceptions can be further matured to strengthen the coalition ahead of the election. "Because if it is just before the election, there is no time," he said.

Especially if you refer to the 20 percent presidential threshold (PT) rule, then at least in building a coalition, you must have at least 115 seats in the DPR RI to carry the presidential and vice presidential candidates. Meanwhile, Golkar and PPP have collected 104 seats.

So, said Ujang, Airlangga had to aggressively carry out political safaris so that his steps towards becoming a presidential candidate would be more open.

"That's why if we see Airlangga meeting not only with the general chairman of the PPP. Almost all of them have met with Surya Paloh and Prabowo, "he explained.

How about NasDem and Gerindra?

Previously, the plan for a presidential candidate convention to be held by the NasDem Party was a topic of discussion at the meeting between NasDem Party Chairman Surya Paloh and Golkar Party Chairman Airlangga Hartarto on Kaliage Island, Thousand Islands, some time ago.

Chairman of the DPP NasDem Party Willy Aditya said Paloh and Airlangga discussed the convention because Golkar had experience holding conventions in 2004.

"Exchanging thoughts and deliberations is of course important to build the same frequency in implementing future political strategies. So this is just a warming up," Willy said in a press release, Wednesday, March 10.

Willy also did not rule out a coalition between NasDem and Golkar or other parties because the NasDem votes in the 2019 elections had not yet met the presidential nomination threshold.

"Of course there are options with other political parties because politics is dynamic, so the homework of the convention is a coalition by prioritizing political communication across political parties and that's where our Ketum's strength, Pak Surya Paloh," said Willy.

After the NasDem, Golkar Party Chairman Airlangga Hartarto also launched his political safari at Hambalang to meet with Gerindra Party Chairman Prabowo Subianto and his staff on Saturday, March 13.

Meetings of figures of the caliber of party chairmen of course often raise public perceptions about long-term political cooperation, including the matter of the presidential election (pilpres) or election.

Moreover, in the previous meeting with Surya Paloh, Airlangga explored a coalition with NasDem in the 2024 presidential election. Candidates will be chosen from the results of a convention held by NasDem, while the vice presidential candidate will be given to Golkar.

However, during a meeting between Golkar and Gerindra officials, the two parties claimed that they had not yet talked about the 2024 General Election and Presidential Election.

A senior Golkar official who took part in the meeting, Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita, claimed that the two parties had not yet talked about long-term political cooperation.

He also rejected his meeting with Gerindra regarding the exploration of the Golkar-NasDem coalition in 2024.

"We focus on the success of Pak Jokowi's government first," he said, Saturday, March 13.