When Luhut Is Asked To Be Careful When Claiming Data On People Who Want To Postpone The Election

Luhut Pandjaitan/Photo: Antara

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan spoke about the discourse of postponing the election until the term of President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) was extended. Luhut claims to have data on the aspirations of the Indonesian people who want a postponement of the 2024 election. This was conveyed by Luhut in the #closethedoor podcast on Deddy Corbuzier's YouTube channel, as seen, Friday, March 11.

For his words, Luhut was asked to be careful in claiming the wishes of the people. Including the main party carrying the government, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP).

The chairman of the DPP PDIP, Andreas Hugo Pareira, also reminded all parties not to mislead Joko Widodo over claims that allow the presidential term to be extended or delay the election.

"Be careful in the name of the people just to maintain power. Then the people will be angry," said Andreas via text message, Sunday, March 12.

Andreas then alludes to the history of the New Order era. The member of the DPR RI for the NTT constituency explained that the Chairperson of the MPR, Harmoko, in 1997 reported to the second President of the Republic of Indonesia, Suharto.

The report stated that the people still wanted Suharto to be elected by the MPR as President of the Republic of Indonesia for the seventh term. However, after a year everything changed. Harmoko in 1998, who knocked Suharto out of office, dismissed Suharto as President of the Republic of Indonesia after the great general resigned on May 22, 1998. "Let's learn from history. Don't violate the constitution just to maintain power," warned Andreas.

Meanwhile, the observer of political communication at Esa Unggul University, Jamiluddin Ritonga, believes that Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Panjaitan (LBP) must prove his claim regarding data on people's aspirations and some party cadres want the 2024 election to be postponed.

Because according to him, the LBP claim contradicts the survey results where most respondents do not want the 2024 Election to be postponed.

Jamiluddin said, as an executive officer, the LBP should not participate in voicing the postponement of the 2024 election. The LBP should only carry out its duties and functions.

"It is strange that LBP seems to be the spokesman for a political party. Unfortunately, the political party has rejected LBP's claim," said Jamiluddin in Jakarta, Sunday, March 13.

Therefore, he continued, it would be logical if many parties questioned the LBP's motivation for submitting the claim. The question is getting stronger given the speculation of the palace's involvement in the postponement of the 2024 election.

"This speculation should be clarified by the LBP so that public suspicion of the palace as in delaying the election can be minimized. Without clarification, the public will continue to suspect the palace's statement, including the LBP, regarding the postponement of the election," explained Jamiluddin.

With the increasing number of executive officials who are voicing the postponement of the election, said Jamiluddin, it will naturally make politics in the country become noisier. This will have an impact on the slowing down of economic growth in the country.

"Political commotion will become more widespread if the government and coalition parties succeed in postponing the election. People who are pro-democracy will firmly reject it," he said.

Jamiluddin added that the conflict of interest between the two poles would make politics in the country more uncertain. It is feared that this situation will give birth to political chaos that endangers the integrity of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia.

"Children of the country who love the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia certainly do not want that to happen. Therefore, the country's elite should not play with fire regarding the postponement of the election," he said.

Previously, in his conversation with Deddy Corbuzier, Luhut explained that his party had big data which recorded public aspirations on social media regarding the 2024 Election.

"Because of this, we have big data, I want to see, we have big data, from that big data, we grab around 110 million. Yes, 110 million, various kinds, Facebook, all kinds, because people are on Twitter, about 110 million people," said Luhut.

From this data, Luhut explained that the lower middle class wanted a calm socio-political condition. The people, said Luhut, do not want political noise and prefer economic conditions to be improved.

"In the middle to lower class, basically we want to be calm, we want to talk about the economy, we don't want it to be like yesterday. Yesterday we had a toothache with kampret, cebong, kadrun, that's not good. How long to be like that?" he explained.

Still from the big data claimed by Luhut, he said that the Indonesian people criticized the IDR 100 trillion more funds for the 2024 election. The hundreds of trillions of funds were indeed proposed by the KPU to the DPR government.

"Nowadays like this, he said, we are trying to catch it from the public (from these data), yes it says we want to spend more than IDR 100 trillion to vote, this is a situation like this, what are you doing for the presidential election and regional elections, right? simultaneously," he said.

Luhut said that the party's reluctance to hold the 2024 general election should have arrested the public's aspiration regarding the reluctance to hold the 2024 election. According to him, the party should seriously consider the aspiration to postpone the election.

"Yes, that's what the people said. Well, this niche is in the Democratic Party, there is the Gerindra Party, PDIP, there is PKB, there is Golkar, there are niches everywhere. Yes, they will see which one hear our voices."

Luhut claims that there are many examples of other countries delaying elections or extending presidential terms. However, Luhut emphasized President Jokowi's stance regarding the discourse on postponing the election and extending the term of office, namely remaining obedient to the constitution.