Jokowi: Indonesia Needs A Leader, Not A Sweet Seat And Then Sign

Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jokowi)/ Photo: Antara

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo said that future Indonesian leaders must be brave and close to the people.

"Our people, the Indonesian people need the right leaders, need the right leaders, who are close to the people, who understand the hearts of the people, who know the needs of the people, who want to work hard for the people. That's what is needed, and brave, who are brave, brave for the people," said President Jokowi in Jakarta, Sunday, May 14.

President Jokowi conveyed this at the Indonesian People's Consultative Assembly (Musra) at Istora Senayan, Jakarta. In the Musra, the Chairperson of the Indonesian Musra Committee Panel Barus submitted the results of Musra, namely three names of presidential candidates for the 2024 election based on the results of the screening of names from a number of volunteer organizations.

"People need leaders who understand, who understand how to advance this country, because the leader must understand and know the potential and strength of this country, what is the strength of this nation," added the President.

Moreover, according to President Jokowi, Indonesia is a large country with around 280 million people.

"He (the Indonesian leader) must understand, he must know and the leader must know and understand how to advance this country from what side, and be able to take advantage of the opportunities that exist, not just sitting there and routine, not just sitting there and signing, not that," said the President.

President Jokowi said that Indonesian leaders must know how to build a state strategy, economic strategy, political strategy because Indonesia is facing and competing with other countries.

"As soon as we mistakenly chose the right leader for the next 13 years, the opportunity to become a developed country was lost. Be careful about this, be careful. History in Latin America in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, they were already in the position of developing countries, have entered the middle income but it has been 50-60 years (passing), they remain developed countries. Because of what? Cannot take advantage of the opportunities that existed at that time and pursue them again, there is no longer any chance," explained the President.

President Jokowi also reminded the next leader to take advantage of Indonesia's demographic bonus and Indonesia's current status as a developing country so that it can become a developed country.

During the event, the Musra committee handed over three names of presidential candidates, namely the Governor of Central Java Ganjar Pranowo, the Minister of Defense and General Chair of the Gerindra Party Prabowo Subianto and the Coordinating Minister for the Economy who is also the General Chair of the Golkar Party Airlangga Hartarto.

Meanwhile, the names of vice presidential candidates submitted were Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Mahfud MD, Presidential Chief of Staff (KSP) Moeldoko, Minister of Tourism for Creative Economy (Menparekraf) Sandiaga Uno, Chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) Arsjad Rasjid to West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil.

Registration for presidential and vice presidential candidates is scheduled for October 19, 2023 to November 25, 2023.

Based on Law Number 7 of 2017 concerning Elections (UU Pemilu), pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates are proposed by political parties or coalitions of political parties participating in the election who meet the requirements for obtaining seats of at least 20 percent of the total seats in the DPR or obtaining 25 percent of the nationally valid votes in the previous election for members of the DPR.

Currently, there are 575 seats in parliament so that the pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates in the 2024 presidential election must have at least 115 seats in the DPR RI. It could also be that the candidate pairs are promoted by political parties or a combination of political parties participating in the 2019 Election with a total valid vote acquisition of at least 34,992,703 votes.