Jokowi's Politics of Offense Explained by Campaign Team

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Director of the Jokowi – Ma’ruf Amin campaign team (TKN) Usman Kansong sees nothing extraordinary with Jokowi’s recent string of rebuttals against what he deems attacks from the opposition.

“The intensity [of playing the offense] increased, but that is only because the attacks grew also,” said Usman to Tempo on Thursday, February 21.

He denies that the strategy Jokowi is currently implementing is to avoid public distrust and claims that the public continues to maintain trust for the current government.

Read also: Jokowi Clarifies His Statement on Prabowo`s Land Ownership

Without stating the pollster, Usman claims a survey shows that public trust toward the Indonesian government remains in the 70 percent territory and that Jokowi’s recent aggressiveness “has nothing to do with public distrust,” he said.

Entering the early phase of the presidential election campaign, Jokowi is seen to show an increased amount of aggressiveness that shows in his debate style and his tendency to return political attacks from the opposition camp.

The recent rebuttal was his response upon opposition’s criticism against Jokowi`s claim on constructing 191,000 kilometers of roads in rural areas.  “If anyone doubts that 191,000 kilometer is impossible, you are free to measure it yourself,” said Jokowi on Wednesday, February 20.

FIKRI ARIGI | AHMAD FAIZ