As elected presidential and vice presidential candidates, Prabowo-Gibran goes on safari to strengthen the coalition

Prabowo's entourage was received by PKB General Chair Muhaimin Iskandar who was also accompanied by a number of political party elites. They include PKB Deputy General Chair Jazilul Fawaid, PKB Secretary General M Hasanuddin Wahid, and Chairman of the DPR PKB Fraction Cucun Ahmad Syamsurijal. At the PKB DPP office, Prabowo, Muhaimin and the political party elites each held a closed meeting for one hour. After the meeting, Muhaimin congratulated Prabowo and his partner, Gibran, on the election. PKB also expressed support for Prabowo-Gibran and the government that will be formed later.

Prabowo asserted that the election is over. It cannot be denied that the election contest was intense, especially during the presidential debates. He also believes that every competition should be colored by fierce competition because the community does want to see their candidate leaders competing on their ideas. However, after competing fiercely, national candidate leaders must look ahead.

"Now we have to look forward to working for the people, now is the stage of working together for the people," said Prabowo.

Previously, on Tuesday evening, when met after a meeting with the Legal Team of the Prabowo-Gibran National Campaign Team on Jalan Kertanegara, Jakarta, Prabowo said that he and Gibran would indeed start political communication with other political parties after the KPU was determined. The communication in question is part of efforts to build a strong and effective government coalition (Kompas, 23/4/2024).

Every competition must be colored with fierce competition because the community does want to see their prospective leaders exchange ideas. However, after competing intensely, national prospective leaders must look forward.

The first political communication that was explored after being confirmed as the elected presidential and vice presidential candidate was with PKB. In the 2024 Presidential Election, PKB is one of the supporters of the Anies Baswedan-Muhaimin Iskandar pair, along with the Nasdem Party and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS). Prior to being on a different side, PKB had formed a coalition with Gerindra. However, PKB changed its stance as it did not have the opportunity to make Muhaimin as Prabowo's vice presidential running mate.

When leaving the PKB central office, Prabowo did not answer when asked which political parties he would visit after PKB. He also did not respond to rumors circulating that he would communicate with the elite of the Partai Persatuan Pembangunan (PPP) party.

When contacted separately, the Chairman of PPP's DPP, Achmad Baidowi, did not deny the communication with Gerindra. However, it was still an informal communication between party elites. "Regarding the meeting plan, basically we will follow the existing dynamics. The party's stance will be decided in an official forum that will be held soon," said Baidowi.

Also read: Legitimate, Prabowo-Gibran as Elected Presidential Candidates

Previously, Prabowo also met with the General Chairman of Nasdem, Surya Paloh, at Nasdem Tower in Jakarta at the end of March. On Wednesday night, before meeting with his legal team, Prabowo also received a visit from Nasdem's Vice General Chairman, Ahmad Ali.

Gerindra's Secretary-General, Sufmi Dasco Ahmad, refused to explain the substance of the conversation between Prabowo and Ahmad Ali. However, he emphasized that there would be a surprise in the near future. "Just wait and see in the next one or two days," he said.

Meanwhile, while Prabowo visited PKB, Gibran also visited Vice President Ma'ruf Amin at the vice president's official residence on Diponegoro Street, Jakarta, on Wednesday afternoon. After the visit, Gibran said his visit was intended to seek guidance from Ma'ruf Amin as a senior figure and successful vice president in carrying out his duties. According to Gibran, the Vice President stressed the importance of synergy and mutual support between the president and vice president in carrying out their duties.

Speed ​​up the formation of the cabinet

The Head of the Politics and Social Change Department at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Arya Fernandes, believes that the Prabowo-Gibran political safari is intended to expedite discussions with political parties outside of the Coalition of Indonesian United (KIM). These discussions aim to accelerate the formation of a cabinet platform and the formulation of the government's vision for 2024-2029.

Outside of the KIM, there are several political parties that support Anies-Muhaimin, namely Nasdem, PKB, and a political party that cannot be named. In addition, there are also political parties that support Ganjar Pranowo-Mahfud MD, namely the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and another political party that cannot be named.

Also read: Affirming support for Prabowo-Gibran, PKB submits eight change programs

Arya doesn't deny that communication with several political parties outside of KIM has been carried out in the past few months, both by Prabowo and related party elites. However, after the selection of the elected presidential and vice presidential candidates, Prabowo is considered to have a need to expedite the discussion because many parties are waiting for new breakthroughs from the Prabowo-Gibran government, from the domestic public to the international community.

"Prabowo wants to provide political certainty more quickly, how the future government will look, what his new government's vision for the future will be, and how the cabinet selection process will be," said Arya.

According to him, it is unlikely that there will be significant obstacles for Prabowo in his efforts. This is because there is a tendency that there has already been a certain agreement with several parties outside KIM to cooperate after Prabowo is elected. Furthermore, so far there has been no resistance from KIM member parties to the new parties that will join.

However, Arya reminded that Prabowo must still pay attention to proportionality in forming a cabinet. Effective governance does require strong support from political parties, but that does not mean that all parties must be embraced into the government coalition.

"If the cabinet is too bloated, it will certainly be risky because internal intrigue will be high and the amount of political accommodation given will also be more. The future cabinet should be moderate, with not too many but also not too few coalition parties," said Arya.