Two Retired Army General Groups Back Jokowi in 2019 Election
19 October 2018 10:04 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - As it turns out, several retired Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) Generals have not gone entirely into retirement heading toward the 2019 Presidential Election. Two notable teams that consist of former TNI generals, Bravo-5 and Team Cakra 19, are set to back the incumbent candidate Joko `Jokowi` WIdodo – Ma`ruf Amin.
Bravo-5
Around five years ago, the Bravo-5 team was established to help the presidential campaign of Jokowi – Jusuf Kalla in the 2014 presidential election, which was led by retired TNI General Fachrul Razi. This team was deactivated after the pair won the election.
“On October 2017, we sat together and decided to reactivate the [Bravo-5] team,” said Fachrul.
The birth of Bravo-5 was driven by, at the time, General Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan who was Commander of the Army Training and Education Center. The TNI retirees joined in Bravo-5 were graduates of the 1970 Military Academy. The name itself took inspiration from a house in Central Jakarta.
The team currently still headquarters at Menteng, Central Jakarta, but is in another location at Jalan Maluku No 32. They routinely hold meetings upon discussing their strategy that is similar to the one in 2014 where they will face Prabowo Subianto, a former fellow soldier in the military.
Tim Cakra 19
Bravo-5 is not the only former TNI generals that have set a group to help Jokowi face the election. This latest group called the Cakra 19 was introduced in August that was initiated by Minister Luhut Binsar Panjaitan.
The difference is that the Cakra 19 consists of TNI retirees that have just freshly retired, which are mostly from the Indonesian Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) and are headquartered at Setia Budi, South Jakarta. This team was established by the end of 2017.
This team consists of members from general citizens and led by former cabinet secretary Andi Widjajanto, Eko Wiratmoko, former Deputy V of the Presidential Chief of Staff Andogo Wiradi, and the former head of Indonesian National Army Information Center Iskandar Sitompul.
DEWI NURITA
