There Is No Conflict, Zulfan Lindan Withdraws From NasDem Because He Feels Dependent

Zulfan Lindan resigned from the NasDem Party. (Instagram @official_nasdem)

JAKARTA - Senior politician Zulfan Lindan declared his resignation from the National Democratic Party (NasDem). Zulfan admitted that there was no conflict with the party chaired by Surya Paloh. However, at this time he felt his position was suspended after being deactivated from the management in the aftermath of his statement which said Anies Baswedan was an antithesis from President Joko Widodo (Jokowi).

"It's not a conflict. I came to the conclusion, instead of not making it clear, I just took the decision to resign," said Zulfan, quoted on Friday, March 24. Zulfan also admitted that he was uncomfortable with the party's internal decisions, after deactivating himself as chairman of the NasDem Party DPP. According to him, the NasDem elite was also disturbed by his statement about Jokowi's antithesis Anies. The reason is, one side of the party supports Anies as a presidential candidate (candidate) in 2024. On the other hand NasDem is still part of the government.

"After October 3, NasDem declared Anies as a presidential candidate. Then, at that time (declared) Anies was antitesting Jokowi. The NasDem DPP felt disturbed by my statement, so 2 days after I issued the statement, a letter was issued as if I was dismissed from the Nasdem Party DPP management," he explained.

"After that, I saw it too, it seemed that even though I felt there was no difficulty communicating with my friends at the NasDem DPP. But that they were both uncomfortable, they were uncomfortable, I was uncomfortable," continued Zulfan. It was previously known that the NasDem Party DPP deactivated Zulfan Lindan in the aftermath of his controversial statement which was considered to have caused a commotion because he called the former governor of DKI Jakarta, Anies Baswedan, an antithesis from President Jokowi. Zulfan's deactivation was immediately announced by the Chairman of the NasDem Party Surya Paloh in October last year.

"Seeing the development of the dynamics recently, where Lindan's brother has issued an unproductive statement and even tends to reduce the image of the NasDem Party. The NasDem Party DPP gave a strong warning to Zulfan Lindan, in the form of disabling the management of the NasDem Party DPP," Paloh said in his press statement, Thursday, October 13.

"Secondly prohibits giving statements in mass media and social media on behalf of NasDem Party functionaries until the time is set," he continued.

At that time, Zulfan considered that Anies had the ability to think conceptually when formulated in policy. According to him, other figures who are predicted to become presidential candidates will not be like Anies but all of them are similar to Jokowi. So according to him, the NasDem Party decided to carry Anies as a presidential candidate in the 2024 Presidential Election (Pilpres).

"We see Jokowi as a test, thesis, thinking and work, his thesis is like that from Jokowi. Then we look for antitheses, what are the antitests? From Jokowi's antitheses that match, Anies," he said.