May 3, 2024
JAKARTA – Adisagreement has emerged in Prabowo Subianto’s coalition after a member objected to the potential inclusion of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), a mid-size party in the legislature with a loyal supporter base, in the president-elect’s incoming government.
Since his victory was upheld by the Constitutional Court last month, Prabowo has been shifting his focus to joining forces with political parties from rival camps in a bid to command a majority in the House of Representatives, which could help him accelerate his legislative agenda and form a stable government.
With four parties in the legislature — Prabowo’s own Gerindra Party, the Golkar Party, the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the Democratic Party — already in his soon-to-be ruling coalition, the incoming president last week welcomed two new additions into his fold, the NasDem Party and the National Awakening Party (PKB).
Both NasDem and the PKB were part of the three-way electoral alliance backing losing presidential candidate Anies Baswedan.
The PKS, the other member of pro-Anies camp, appeared intent on following in the footsteps of its former colleagues, hinting last week at its willingness to support Prabowo’s incoming government. The Muslim-based party spent the past decade as an opposition party to outgoing President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.
“We are ready to prepare our members to be better, more positive and more professional in the hopes of contributing more [to this country],” PKS secretary-general Aboe Bakar Al Habsyi told the press on Saturday.
The PKS invited Prabowo and his Gerindra members to a post-Idul Fitri gathering at its headquarters in South Jakarta on Saturday, but none of them showed up.
The PKS has hinted at its desire to join Prabowo’s coalition, but this intention has not been received well by the Gelora Party — a party that splintered off the PKS and made its debut in the February legislative election but failed to win enough votes to send representatives to the House. Gelora is one of five non-legislature parties that supported Prabowo in the presidential election, also in February.
Gelora secretary-general Mahfuz Sidik said on Monday that the PKS would not be a right fit in the coalition, given that the party’s political stance and ideology have long been “diametrically opposed” to Prabowo’s, which mainly hinges on continuing many of Jokowi’s policies.
“When Prabowo decided to reconcile with Jokowi in 2019, many accused Prabowo of being a traitor. And those accusations generally came from PKS grassroots supporters,” Mahfuz said.
Despite Gelora’s rejection, Gerindra executive Rahayu Saraswati Djojohadikusumo ensured on Wednesday that the PKS was welcome to join Prabowo’s coalition, noting that the president-elect would prioritize “national unity” above all else.
“Communications with the PKS have been ongoing since before the election and continue to this day because Prabowo always prioritizes the unity of Indonesia and of the political elite,” she said.
Other coalition members have also said they were open to the possibility of the PKS aligning with a Prabowo government, but any decision to welcome PKS rested entirely in the hands of Prabowo.
“Differing opinions and disagreements are common,” Democratic Party spokesman Herzaky Mahendra Putra told The Jakarta Post. “What Gelora said is something we must consider, but at the same time, Prabowo has the final say.
Political analyst Arifki Chaniago said Prabowo might not necessarily need legislative support from the PKS as his ever-growing ruling coalition already commands more than two-thirds of 580 House seats.
The decision on whether to invite PKS will likely hinge on whether Prabowo needs the PKS and its loyal supporter base to support his government for the next five years. The PKS has consistently criticized the outgoing Jokowi administration.
Arifki noted that it would also depend on whether Prabowo intended to isolate the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) as the sole opposition party. The PDI-P, whose politician Ganjar Pranowo was unsuccessful in the presidential election, is projected to hold the most seats in the House and has hinted at taking up the opposition role.
Pointing to the fact that the PDI-P and PKS are the only parties with strong, loyal supporter bases, Arifki said that Prabowo, with the PKS in his coalition, could use the party as a shield to face off against the PDI-P and its grassroots supporters”.
Analyst Ahmad Khoirul Umam however said that excluding the PKS from the incoming government would still be beneficial to Prabowo, given that the PKS and PDI-P would find a hard time consolidating a well-coordinated opposition campaign because of their clashing ideologies.
“The PDI-P and PKS are like water and oil,” he said. “Even if the two parties get the chance to play an opposition role together to any [of Prabowo’s] policies [in the House], it will be difficult for them to build a solid [opposition force] at the grassroots level.”