Meeting With Prabowo Subianto, Airlangga Admitted To Discussing The 2020 Regional Elections

Gerindra Party Chairperson Prabowo Subianto and Golkar Party Chairman Airlangga Hartarto before the meeting (Wardhany Tsa Tsia / VOI)

JAKARTA - Golkar Party Chairman Airlangga Hartarto visited Prabowo Subianto's residence. After holding the meeting at the home of the Gerindra Party chairman, Airlangga called this a return visit.

In addition to the reciprocal visit, Airlangga also said that this visit was carried out for friendship as fellow parties in the government coalition.

"This visit is a return visit from Pak Prabowo who attended the Golkar Party and we are very happy to be able to come to Pak Prabowo's house in a very friendly atmosphere because the Golkar and Gerindra Parties are both in the government of the Advanced Indonesia Cabinet," he said. Airlangga after a meeting at Prabowo Subianto's residence, Jalan Kertanegara, Jakarta, Monday, July 6.

He said political visits like this were necessary. The goal is to maintain political stability amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"In the situation of the Covid pandemic, it is important that political stability and political stability will be better with friendship," he said, adding that this meeting would make the coalition in President Jokowi's government even more solid.

Moreover, in that meeting, Airlangga and Prabowo discussed many things. Including strategic issues related to geopolitics and the 2020 simultaneous regional elections which will be held on 9 December.

In line with Airlangga, Prabowo also confirmed that there were a number of important discussions at the meeting. One of them is a discussion about cooperation in the 2020 Pilkada.

"We exchanged views to discuss several matters concerning nationality, the strategic environment, and the possibility of the future cooperation between Golkar and Gerindra in certain Pilkada," he said.

As for the meeting, Prabowo was accompanied by Deputy General Chairmen of the Gerindra Party, Sugiono and Sufmi Dasco Ahmad, as well as Gerindra Party Secretary General Ahmad Muzani.

Reluctant to answer the reshuffle question

However, the two party leaders who also serve as Minister of Defense and Coordinating Minister for the economy are also unanimous and are reluctant to answer the issue of a reshuffle or cabinet reshuffle that is currently rolling. They chose to leave the press conference area when the question arose from reporters who were present at the location.

It is known that President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) admitted that he was disappointed and angry with the performance of his ministers. In the cabinet plenary session attended by his ministers, Jokowi admitted that he did not hesitate to reshuffle or reshuffle the cabinet.

The reason is, in times of crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic like now, Jokowi sees that there are still a number of ministers who work mediocre and even do not issue extraordinary policies.

Not only did Jokowi say he did not hesitate to reshuffle, Jokowi also offended a number of ministers in his cabinet. One of them is Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto.

During the session, Jokowi highlighted that the realization of the health management budget was still very small from the total budget of IDR 75 trillion disbursed. From his notes, the former governor of DKI Jakarta said that only 1.53 percent of the budget had been realized.

Even so, recently Minister of State Secretary (Mensesneg) Pratikno spoke up on the issue of the reshuffle that was blowing. According to Pratikno, Jokowi was angry that the ministers in the Advanced Indonesia Cabinet could improve their performance not because they wanted to do a cabinet reshuffle.

He even claimed that the performance of ministers in the Advanced Indonesia Cabinet has now increased significantly after Jokowi scolded his ministers during a cabinet plenary session. So he considered that the reshuffle issue was no longer relevant.

"This harsh reprimand was carried out quickly by the cabinet. This is good progress. So, if the progress is good, why do we reshuffle it? With good progress, this reshuffle issue is irrelevant," Pratikno told reporters in Jakarta, Monday, July 6.

He hopes that his colleagues in the Advanced Indonesia Cabinet can continue to maintain their performance. "So, don't make any more noise about reshuffling because the cabinet is progressing well," he said.

"We are focused on solving the health and economic problems that have become extraordinary in the COVID-19 pandemic," he concluded.