Suara.com – Joko Widodo or Jokowi's statement, which said that the president could campaign and take sides in the election, invited negative responses from many parties. Jokowi's words were even considered a violation of the Election Law regulations.
However, Political Observer Haunan Fachry Rochilie assessed that Jokowi was playing a trick when making this statement while at Halim Perdana Kusuma Air Field, Newsdelivers.com.
“Why then does Jokowi openly state that he will join the campaign? It's more just a political gimmick. If people upstream say 'ngegap' or bully political opponents, in this case supporters of 01 and 03,” he said to Suara.com, Thursday (25/ 1/2024).
This Tanjungpura University academic suspects that this issue was deliberately presented to his political opponents to show Jokowi's political strength in supporting pair 02.
“And I see that this issue was deliberately played up by asking Jokowi to make this statement. To show Jokowi's political strength in supporting pair 02,” he said.
In fact, according to him, without stating that he would campaign or participate in the election, the public already perceived that Jokowi would fight by all means to win the presidential and vice presidential candidate number 02.
“The public certainly has the perception that Jokowi will use his 'club hammer' to win the 02 pair. Either directly, or regulatory changes that benefit 02,” he said.
Apart from that, he also considered that Jokowi's statement could also be a diversion from the negative issues that attacked Gibran after the fourth debate.
“On the other hand, this issue can also be seen as an effort to suppress negative issues that attacked Gibran after the debate. Because negative sentiment towards Gibran is very high on social media,” he said.
Jokowi's statement
Jokowi previously stated that everyone has the right to take sides and campaign, including the President. Jokowi emphasized this when asked for his response regarding ministers who had no connection to politics actually being on the success team.
“Democratic rights, everyone's political rights. Every minister is the same, the president can campaign, he can take sides,” said Jokowi at Halim Perdanakusuma Air Base, Newsdelivers.com, Wednesday (24/1/2024).
Even though he can take part in the campaign, Jokowi emphasized that even the president cannot use state facilities for political or campaign purposes.
“But the most important thing is that during the campaign we cannot use state facilities. We can be public officials as well as political officials, ministers can also be allowed,” said Jokowi.
Jokowi emphasized the same thing in response to a question about how to ensure there were no conflicts of interest among state officials taking part in the campaign.
“That's all that regulates is that you are not allowed to use state facilities,” he said.