Political Experts Predict Duet Or Duel Ganjar Pranowo And Prabowo Subianto In The 2024 Presidential Election

JAKARTA - Political observer of the University of Jember Dr Muhammad Iqbal said that the presidential candidate promoted by PDIP, Ganjar Pranowo is predicted to be a duet (pair) or Prabowo Subianto's duel (lawan) in the 2024 Presidential Election. "There could be a duet between Ganjar and Prabowo because President Joko Widodo on Eid al-Fitr in Solo said that Prabowo's name could be Ganjar's vice presidential candidate, of course if Prabowo is relegating himself as Ganjar's vice president," he said in a written statement received in Jember, Monday, April 24. However there could be a duel between Ganjar and Prabowo because there emerged a political reality from PDIP General Chair Megawati Soekarnoputri who finally decided Ganjar's name as a presidential candidate promoted by PDIP, even though President Jokowi is more serious about calling Prabowo as his successor. In addition, Ganjar and Prabowo's duel position or duet was also determined by whether the electoral rate of Anies Baswedan would be increasingly unstoppable or worsening ahead of the 2024 elections. "If at the momentum of the months leading to the presidential candidate registration on October 19, 2023, Anies' electability became stronger and continued to threaten the position of the PDIP and Gerindra presidential candidate, then it is very likely that the Ganjar-Prabowo duet would fight Anies," he said. "However, if Anies's electability is increasingly declining and it is considered no longer a threat, then the presidential election contestation will be colored by the 'dram' of Ganjar and Prabowo duels. "If I read, whatever the direction of the duet or duel between Ganjar and Prabowo in the 2024 presidential election is, it is true that it is not intended to build a maturity of the essence of democracy, but rather depends on transactional politics in order to secure the power of the development of President Jokowi's national strategic project," he said. The communication expert said that the essence of democracy is to create social justice and the rule of law enforcement. While another indicator is the formation of the process of check and balances through opposition forces in parliament, strengthening anticorruption and protection of justice, environment and

"Two periods of Jokowi's administration were proven by a number of reports of national and international institutions, experiencing a decline in the index on a number of these indicators," he said. For example, massive persecution, criminalization and unfairness of law enforcement as well as rampant silencing of criticism from the public. Worse, there was almost no opposition force in parliament after Jokowi formed a major coalition of political parties in parliament by offering a position of power in the government cabinet. "So, the direction of the duet or duel between Ganjar and Prabowo is actually just a political transactional strategy to perpetuate the status quo," said the International Relations sciences teacher of FISIP Unej. He said that it was in this context that the thesis of political scientists at Harvard University, Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt became important to mark the bell of Indonesia's democratic death because the elite political authorities slowly brought down the joints, essence and democratic processes to perpetuate their power.