Luhut's Efforts To Extend The Term Of Office Vs PDIP Obeying The Constitution

Luhut Pandjaitan/Photo: Antara

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan has launched a discourse on postponing the 2024 election and extending President Jokowi's term of office by several years. Luhut explained that the discourse came from the majority of Indonesian people's aspirations on social media which he collected into big data.

However, Luhut is reluctant to open data to the public regarding big data, 110 million people on social media want the election to be postponed even though many have urged the former Head of KSP to explain it to the public. Luhut only confirmed that the data was true and he was not making it up.

Luhut's discourse certainly received opposition from many parties. PDIP is the strongest party in rejecting the discourse that violates the constitution. Moreover, the discourse of postponing the election is profiting the people's name.

The chairman of the DPR RI, Puan Maharani, rejected Luhut's discourse by asserting that the date for the 2024 Simultaneous Election had been agreed upon by the DPR together with the government and election organizers, namely February 14, 2024.

Therefore, Puan invites the entire community to make the five-year democratic party a success. According to him, the 2024 election is a democratic tool to absorb people's aspirations and become a shared responsibility.

"It is our collective responsibility to make the 2024 election a success as a quality democratic tool in voicing the will of the people," said Puan via her personal Twitter account.

Puan also emphasized that there would be no delay for the 2024 election as it was proposed to be postponed for the next two years. He emphasized that the DPR RI is currently focusing on managing all the stages together with the election organizers.

"For this reason, as the leader of the DPR, I focus on the stages of conducting the election, starting from budget matters, regulations and technical preparations. Because in the current COVID-19 situation, the implementation of the election is of course different," said Puan.

Meanwhile, PDI-P Secretary General Hasto Kristiyanto questioned the capacity of the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, who often discussed the issue of the 2024 General Election.

He reminded all ministers that they should follow President Joko Widodo's (Jokowi) directions on this issue. They were asked not to have a different opinion about the 2024 election.

"In my opinion, Pak Luhut should clarify, what capacity is he speaking in? Because when it comes to politics, law and security, that is the realm of the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs. When it comes to democratic politics, governance structure, it's the Minister of Home Affairs," Hasto said in a written statement.

PDIP politician Masinton Pasaribu said Luhut's claim would not be considered a lie if the public both knew the source of the data was valid or not.

"The source is big data or "big mouth" huh?? #LordBicaraPenundaan," Masinton said through his Twitter account, @Masinton, quoted Monday, March 14.

So that the public does not doubt, Masinton asked Luhut to be transparent about the claims he had made to the public. As a public official, an attitude of openness should be shown to the public.

"As a form of transparency to the public, it is better if the big data claim is held openly," said the member of Commission XI of the DPR.