President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo (left), Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairperson Megawati Soekarnoputri (centre) and former Central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo attend the party's national meeting in South Jakarta on June 6, 2023. - The Jakarta Post/Antara
JAKARTA: The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) is changing its tune on its tough rhetoric against prominent member President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo after the nation’s largest party’s popularity took a dip and was overtaken by a rival camp that has cast itself as the champion of continuity.
Since Jokowi let his son Gibran Rakabuming Raka run on the PDI-P rival’s ticket as running mate to frontrunner Prabowo Subianto, the party has gone on the offensive against the wildly popular outgoing President.
The PDI-P, however, now appears to be singing a different tune as it painted Jokowi’s perceived politically charged work visit to Central Java as the President’s way of still supporting his fellow party member and presidential candidate Ganjar Pranowo, who is a former governor of the province.
Central Java is one of the PDI-P’s strongholds and a key source of votes for Jokowi in the 2014 and 2019 presidential elections, when he ran with the support of the party.
“Pak Jokowi was helping Pak Ganjar,” PDI-P secretary-general Hasto Kristiyanto said on Saturday, when asked by reporters about the pledge Jokowi made earlier last week in front of farmers in Central Java that he would improve subsidised fertiliser programmes to boost rice production.
The threat of a fertiliser shortage has exacerbated food security concerns and Ganjar’s handling of fertiliser during his tenure as governor of the country’s top rice producer Central Java was raised in the first presidential debate by rival Prabowo, who said that local farmers had been complaining about mismanagement.
Nearing the end of his presidency, Jokowi toured several regions of his traditional bases, including Central Java and East Java, last week in blusukan mode, a popular byword for his signature in-person, impromptu visits to the people that propelled him to the country’s highest office.
There, he met with locals and distributed social aid. Preventing further dips The President’s work trip to East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) earlier this month has prompted speculation that he was trying to shadow Ganjar to keep his base from shifting to the former governor, speculation which Jokowi has denied.
But the PDI-P refrained from joining the chorus of criticism.
“When Pak Ganjar went [to NTT] and not long after Pak Jokowi went there too, people saw this as Pak Jokowi standing behind Pak Ganjar,” Hasto said recently.
Analysts say the PDI-P and Ganjar’s softening stance after previously going on the offensive against Jokowi, who has managed to keep a high approval rating in his final years, might be an attempt to prevent their electability from sliding even more.
Just two months before February’s presidential and legislative elections, electability surveys show the PDI-P and Ganjar, who early on was considered the most likely to succeed Jokowi, slipping in popularity as a significant number of people who voted for Jokowi in the 2014 and 2019 elections have shifted their support to Prabowo.
A survey by the research arm of Kompas daily found Ganjar had slid to third place with an electability of 15.3 per cent, trailing behind Anies Baswedan, at 16.7 per cent, and moving further away from Prabowo who was the frontrunner with 39.3 per cent.
The survey, which was taken in early December, also found the popularity of the PDI-P, which has dominated legislative elections for a decade, slipped to 18.3 per cent and was overtaken by Prabowo’s Gerindra Party, which has now topped the opinion poll with 21.9 per cent.
Rather than going after Jokowi, the party appeared to be seeking to dismantle Prabowo’s efforts to build a new image, from the military hardman to a “gemoy” (adorable) persona, which has gained traction among Jokowi’s supporter base and general electorate, with Hasto now saying that “Pak Prabowo is nothing like Pak Jokowi”.
“The PDI-P and Ganjar’s shifting tact may not help them rebound, but it may help them prevent their electability from dropping further after their growing confrontational stance against Jokowi had backfired,” analyst Agung Baskoro said.
With Prabowo casting himself as the champion of continuity, pledging to carry forward what Jokowi had started, and Anies portraying himself as Jokowi’s antithesis, Ganjar would need to make use of the remaining days of the campaign season to fine-tune his political brand to differentiate himself from his rivals, Agung said.
Before the PDI-P built upon its recent strategy of going on the offensive, Ganjar had previously pledged his commitment to continue Jokowi’s programmes. But after receiving mixed responses over the party’s attack mode against Jokowi, Ganjar is now taking another shift in his campaign and carrying the tagline of “continuity and improvement”.
“Ganjar however needs to explain what constitutes ‘improvement’ in a way that is easy to understand among the grassroots that he tried to appeal to,” Agung said. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
