July 18, 2024
JAKARTA – Vice president-elect Gibran Rakabuming Raka will now focus on preparing for his new role and moving his family to Jakarta after resigning as Surakarta mayor, some three months before his inauguration.
Gibran won the February election as the running mate to Gerindra Party chairman Prabowo Subianto. The pair secured a landslide victory after positioning themselves as the natural successors to outgoing President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who is Gibran’s father.
Gibran’s mayoral tenure was supposed to end early next year, when an elected successor would be inaugurated following the regional head elections in November of this year.
But he tendered his resignation to the Surakarta Legislative Council on Tuesday, cutting his time short as the mayor so he could prepare to take up his new role as vice president in October.
The council in a plenary session on Wednesday accepted his resignation and is now submitting its decision to the Home Ministry for final approval. The council also proposed to the ministry that Deputy Mayor Teguh Prakoso replace Gibran as mayor.
After the plenary session, Gibran told reporters that he would relocate himself and his family to Jakarta and go on a tour around the country to look for issues his administration needs to resolve.
“The main focus now is problem shopping,” Gibran said. “The priority locations [I will be visiting] are Jakarta, [areas] outside Java, and the new capital city.”
Gibran was an entrepreneur who made his political debut in late 2019 when he joined the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), following in the footsteps of his father. Gibran ran for Surakarta mayor a year later on that party’s ticket.
But unlike Jokowi who spent nine years climbing up the ranks from Surakarta mayor to Jakarta governor before eventually winning his first presidential run in 2014, Gibran, at 36, had barely three years’ experience in public office when he won the vice presidency.
He initially was ineligible to run for vice president, but the Constitutional Court made last-minute changes to election candidacy requirements that effectively cleared his way.
Read also: Surakarta DPRD accepts Gibran’s resignation as mayor
Gibran said on Wednesday that his wife and children had already moved to Jakarta ahead of him, while he is still biding his time in Surakarta until the Home Ministry issues its final approval of his resignation. Gibran also said he had consulted with Prabowo and informed acting Central Java governor Nana Sudjana and Home Minister Tito Karnavian before tendering his resignation.
Political parties in the Gerindra-led Onward Indonesia Coalition (KIM) electoral alliance behind the Prabowo-Gibran victory have hailed Gibran’s decision as the right thing to do.
“Since it’s getting closer until the inauguration, it’s understandable that Gibran has chosen to focus more on his own preparation,” Kamhar Lakumani of the Democratic Party told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
He said Gibran’s decision was made entirely on his own, without any pressure from KIM alliance members.
Golkar Party executive Lodewijk Paulus, meanwhile, was quoted by Antara as saying on Tuesday that Gibran “had to step down as mayor so that the Surakarta administration can run its [day-to-day operations] smoothly.”
Gibran is currently not a member of any political party. He parted ways with the PDI-P following the February presidential election.
Read also: Court rulings seal Prabowo win
Political analyst Wasisto Raharjo Jati from the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) said that Gibran likely resigned so that he could solely focus on preparing himself for the rigors of higher office, without being bogged down by the day-to-day responsibilities of being a mayor.
“His resignation shows that he is trying to be his own [decision-maker] as early as he can to prepare for the pressure of high politics, be it [when facing parties] from his own coalition or those outside of it,” Wasisto said on Wednesday.
Wasisto predicted that Gibran would spend the three months before his inauguration behind the scenes rather than making public appearances.
Gibran has insisted that his resignation has nothing to do with campaigning for certain prospective candidates in the November regional elections, which could include his younger brother and Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) chair Kaesang Pangarep, who, it is speculated, will run in either the Jakarta or Central Java gubernatorial elections.