Jokowi’s Brilliant Work Pulls Regional Leaders Support

By: Anisa Medina *

It is common for President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) to be attacked with issues of foreign accomplices, PKI descendants, and other negative issues. But the accusations did not necessarily make the public’s view of Jokowi worse, in fact many regional heads declared support for Jokowi because they really felt the program and vision of the mission that Jokowi had compiled since taking office in 2014. Aside from being from the political parties supporting Jokowi-Ma’ruf, a number of Governors and regional heads expressed their support because of their subjective judgments.
Uniquely, this support also came from the regional head of the non-incumbent political party coalition Prabowo-Sandiaga Uno. For example, support from Governor Lukas Enembe (Governor of Papua), Tuan Guru Bajang Zainul Majdi (Governor of NTB), and Khofifah Indar Parawansa (Governor of East Java) who was in the election carried by the Democratic Party. Meanwhile, the Democrats themselves have chosen to support the Prabowo-Sandiaga Uno couple.
The Regional Head’s support for Jokowi-Ma’ruf does not violate any rules. Because the position of Regional Head is a political position so it does not violate the rules when declaring his political views. As stipulated in article 63, General Election Commission Regulation (PKPU) Number 23 of 2018 paragraph 2, regional heads can become members of the campaign team. The condition is to submit a leave for campaign on the working day as stipulated in Article 62 of the PKPU. It is mentioned in the rules, limited to one day off on weekdays, and are welcome to campaign on holidays.
On the other hand, politics grew with public support and the 2019 Presidential Election will become a magnet for national attention. The partiality of the regional head on one of the presidential candidates can actually bring electoral incentives to the heads of the regions concerned so that they can reduce Golput in the area.
The real evidence that becomes the magnet of support flowing to Jokowi is that he succeeded in seizing the Mahakam Block, the Oil and Gas field in East Kalimantan in 2015. The Oil and Gas Block previously managed by Total, the French company was later acquired and handed over to Pertamina. Furthermore, Jokowi also successfully acquired the Rokan Block, an oil and gas block located in Riau. The oil and gas block was taken from the hands of a company from Chevron (US) and then handed over to Pertamina.
The last and most difficult, is to seize the Freeport gold mine from American hands. With a full struggle, the majority share of Freeport is now in the hands of the Indonesian government and its management has also been handed over to Inalum.
With that, it can be very clear that the Nawacita Jokowi program really sided with the community. National development is focused not only on Java, on the contrary, rural communities even outside Java can feel the development that has been accelerated by Jokowi. So not a few regional heads supported Jokowi to continue his leadership so that development could be gradual, continuous, and sustainable in order to realize an advanced Indonesia and be able to compete internationally. So it is inappropriate for Jokowi to be labeled with the issue of being a foreign stooge and other issues because it has been proven that President Jokowi’s performance is in favor of the people and nation of Indonesia.

*) The author is a PTN student in Political Science in Jakarta