Denies Betrayal, This Is The Reason For PAN Joining Jokowi's Coalition

PAN chairman Zulkifli Hasan during the Jokowi coalition meeting at the Palace some time ago (Presidential Secretariat Youtube)

JAKARTA - The National Mandate Party (PAN) has officially joined the coalition government of Joko Widodo - Ma'ruf Amin in the second National Working Meeting.

Deputy Chairperson of the National Mandate Party (PAN) DPP, Viva Yoga Mauladi, said that the joining of PAN to the coalition was not sudden. The reason is, since the reformation period, the party chaired by Zulkifli Hasan has always supported the government.

"PAN joining the government is not a strange thing, because since 1999 from the reign of BJ Habibie then Abdurrahman Wahid, Megawati to SBY and Jokowi as president of the first term, PAN has always been a government coalition political party," said Viva in a virtual discussion, Thursday, September 2.

There is also a reason why PAN left the administration of President Jokowi in the first period, because it supported the Prabowo-Sandiaga Uno candidate pair in the 2019 Presidential Election, both of whom are now Jokowi's ministers.

"Then the question is why when the Jokowi government left the coalition party, the answer is that before the 2019 election, PAN chose a different pair of candidates from the coalition party. So when the presidential election was different, the presidential and vice-presidential candidates were different, then PAN gave permission to leave the cabinet," explained Viva.

Viva also denied that PAN betrayed Jokowi in the first period at that time. He also left the opposition party that has been running together since the 2019 election to choose to rejoin the government.

"It's not a matter of traitors, double or triple politics, not but solely because of maintaining political dignity so that democracy has quality and now the National Mandate Party has joined the government coalition party," said Viva.