IO, Jakarta – After the Constitutional Court (MK) ruled to dismiss all of Prabowo-Sandi’s lawsuits disputing the 2019 presidential election, Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) President Mohamad Sohibul Iman stated that parties who supported the Prabowo-Sandi ticket were already showing signs they would cozy up with the new administration. “We are seeing, from the Constitutional Court ruling phenomena, also the KPU (General Election Commission), who are already starting to cozy up, those are signs that they aren’t ready to become opposition, that’s my interpretation,” said Sohibul during a briefing of 250 PKS members in Mercure Hotel, Jakarta, earlier this week.
Sohibul believes that the Gerindra Party has also given the cue that they aren’t ready to remain as the opposition. Despite this, PKS hopes that the Gerindra Party will stay out of the government. “It can be interpreted that way, although especially for Gerindra I have reminded them as a friend that I have faith that in the end, they won’t, they won’t go there, Inshallah, they will stay with PKS,” he said.
Nevertheless, he asserted that PKS would not be afraid of being the sole opposition party if no other parties were ready. According to him, PKS already has experience as opposition from Jokowi’s first period. “First, we actually want to carry out the basic logic of democracy, that democracy must have checks and balances. That means there must be an opposition,” he asserted.
Meanwhile, on the Indonesian New Direction Movement or Garbi which would soon officially become a political party, Sohibul would not comment. According to him, that wasn’t PKS’s issue. He was confident that PKS members would remain loyal and not move to Garbi. “I already said, I trust PKS members. They are all already well developed,” he added.
Former PKS member, currently serving as DPR Deputy Speaker, Fahri Hamzah, plans on officially making Garbi a political party. He plans to submit the registration of Garbi as a political party to the Ministry of Law and Human Rights by the end of 2019. (Dan)