TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
'People Power' cannot be commanded, must grow of itself: Analyst
Political expert Obsatar Sinaga from Padjajaran University in Bandung has said that president-elect Joko "Jokowi" Widodo does not need to motivate the Indonesian people to pressurize the House of Representatives, which looks increasingly likely to cause major problems to Jokowiâs presidency
Change Size
P
olitical expert Obsatar Sinaga from Padjajaran University in Bandung has said that president-elect Joko "Jokowi" Widodo does not need to motivate the Indonesian people to pressurize the House of Representatives, which looks increasingly likely to cause major problems to Jokowi's presidency.
Obsatar claimed that the public would keep an eye on the performance of Jokowi's government as well as the performance of the legislature.
If lawmakers were seen trying to put a wrench in the works of Jokowi's pro-people policies, the public would naturally side with the seventh president against the House, he said.
"Let 'people power' emerge organically, not by design," he said on Monday evening as quoted by kompas.com.
For this reason, Obsatar claimed, Jokowi had to implement pro-people policies during his presidential tenure over the next five years in a bid to keep the people's support.
"Let lawmakers from the Red-and-White Coalition become watchdogs over Jokowi. People will monitor how they oversee him," he said.
Previously, Syarif Hidayatullah Islamic State University political observer Zaki Mubarak said that Jokowi had to drive people to help him face the House, which is dominated by lawmakers from the Red-and-White Coalition led by losing presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto.
Zaki opined that invoking 'people power' was the last option available to Jokowi to face opposition lawmakers if they intended to continue hampering his administration for political reasons. President-elect Jokowi is supported only by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the National Awakening Party (PKB), the Hanura Party, the Nasdem Party and the Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (PKPI) in the House.
Meanwhile, the Red-and-White Coalition opposed to Jokowi consists of the Golkar Party, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the National Mandate Party (PAN), the United Development Party (PPP), the Democratic Party and the Gerindra Party. (alz)
