Suara.com – President Joko Widodo’s eldest son who is also the Mayor of Solo, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, has officially been promoted by the Advanced Indonesia Coalition as Prabowo Subianto’s vice presidential candidate. The declaration was announced directly by Prabowo at his residence, Kartanegara, on Sunday (22/10/2023) evening.
Uniquely, the declaration was without Gibran’s presence. Prabowo reasoned that Gibran’s absence was because there was a meeting discussing the APBD. So what will happen to Gibran, whose status is a PDIP cadre?
Gibran’s advancement as vice presidential candidate for Prabowo does have consequences. Of course he has to leave PDIP, which has already announced its favorite candidate for the 2024 presidential election, namely Ganjar Pranowo-Mahfud Md.
Regarding this, before Gibran was officially declared, the Chair of the PDIP DPP, Puan Maharani, said that Gibran had asked for permission to take part in the 2024 presidential election.
“Last night (Friday, 20/10/2023), (I) met Mas Gibran and Mas Gibran said that there is a possibility that he will take part in the presidential election contest (2024),” said Puan after attending the Ganjar Pranowo-Mahfud MD Volunteer Consolidation as East Java in Surabaya, East Java, Saturday (21/10/2023).
However, Puan was reluctant to explain further because there has been no definite decision regarding the nomination of President Jokowi’s eldest son as a potential vice presidential candidate (cawapres) in the 2024 presidential election.
“As far as I know, Mas Gibran has just received a recommendation from the Golkar Party to run as vice presidential candidate. However, regarding what to do next, there has been no decision yet,” added Puan.
On the other hand, President Jokowi spoke out regarding Gibran who was appointed as Prabowo Subianto’s vice presidential candidate. Jokowi said his son was an adult and didn’t want to get involved.
“Because you are an adult, don’t interfere too much,” said Jokowi after his speech at the Santri Day event at the Surabaya Heroes Monument, East Java, Sunday (22/10/2023).
President Jokowi also said that as a parent, his job is to approve and pray for the best.
“Parents’ job is only to pray for and approve of (Gibran’s) decisions,” he said.
Until this article was written, it was not known for certain when Gibran would resign or even be fired by PDIP.