Democratic Party`s Shaky Position in the Gerindra Coalition

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Without being asked by journalists that waited for him to finish his Isha prayers at his home in South Jakarta, Democratic Party Chairman Susilo ‘SBY’ Bambang Yudhoyono revealed his relationship with Megawati Soekarnoputri, Chairman of Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP).

“I must be honest my relationship with Megawati has not recovered. We have a distance between us,” said SBY.

That night at his house, SBY had just met with National Mandate Party (PAN) Chairman Zulkifli Hasan. SBY revealed more of his unsteady relationship with Megawati than the substance of his meeting with the PAN Chairman.

Moreover, SBY stated that the opportunity for him to establish a coalition with Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo is completely off the table.

“I truly felt Jokowi’s sincerity in asking Democrats to join his coalition parties. But the door has not opened for the Democratic Party to join Jokowi’s coalition,” said SBY who hinted a sense of opposition from Jokowi’s political party coalition that had already formed.

SBY’s statement somehow asserts Democratic Party’s next move is to join Gerindra’s party coalition led by its chairman Prabowo Subianto. The meeting at SBY’s house saw Prabowo indirectly acknowledging that an official coalition between the Democrats and Gerindra is just a matter of time.

However, one element hampering the coalition from forming is the stance taken by the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and PAN, which has held a coalition with Gerindra since the 2014 presidential election. From the two, PKS is the one that has showed strong signs of disapproval against Democratic Party.

PKS Executive member Tifatul Sembiring is still very much confident that Gerindra will take one of PKS’ member as a vice presidential candidate. “We still [believe] that the vice presidential candidate will come from PKS,” said Tifatul at the Senayan parliamentary complex on Tuesday, July 24.

Tifatul said that PKS will approve of Democrat’s existence in the coalition as long as the party does not ask for a position and submit SBY’s son and executive member Agus ‘AHY’ Harimurti Yudhoyono as a candidate. AHY has shown to perform in numerous polls related to the 2019 Presidential Election, unlike many candidates from PKS.

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