However, as in poker, bluffing does not always end in a win. Those who are too confident in bluffing can also end up losing. Spanier gave the example of former US President Richard Nixon who fell as a result of the Watergate scandal.
The Watergate recordings were initially intended as a political weapon or bluff to help Nixon win the next US presidential election. But unfortunately, the cassette recording actually backfired, making him the first and the only US president to resign from office.
Given the way that NasDem has behaved since the cabinet was formed during Jokowi’s second term, it appears that Surya’s transparent directives are seen as an anticlimax to the political bluffing that NasDem has engaged in on several occasions.
Surya has actually engaged in political bluffs multiple times. We still recall NasDem expressing its disapproval as soon as Prabowo was set to join the cabinet in 2019. It approached PKS in an attempt to bluff at that point. Surya declared in public that NasDem was prepared to be the opposition.
Additionally, Surya said that President Jokowi would face impeachment if he issued a Government Regulation in Lieu of Law (Perppu) to undo the contentious amendment to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Law in October 2019. Many were astonished by that statement at the time. Furthermore, it vanished when the Perppu was not issued, as is well known.
And now it appears that Surya is pulling another deception as the 2024 presidential race heats up. I’m not sure what the goal is, but it seems like it could be an open diplomatic effort to help in political lobbying.
Elites vs. Democracy
It is disturbing to note the current state of affairs, since the voice of the people is being seized for the benefit of the elite, whether or not this is a deliberate element of the political communication plan. The losers ought to keep in mind what Mahfud MD said in 2019. In essence, KPU has no redeeming qualities in the view of the defeated. Furthermore, those who fear failure will never back down. [After the polling day], the charges of cheating won’t surface for longer than two days. The losers will label every election as rigged. In essence, the losers will claim right away that they have been duped “explained Mahfud.
It is imperative that we all keep in mind that Prabowo-Gibran’s overwhelming win was essentially the people’s voice. The future president and vice president of Indonesia have been chosen by a majority vote. The losers ought to hold off from blatantly accusing it of being fraudulent, unconstitutional, and other unfounded charges.
What transpired in the US must not be repeated. Extreme divisiveness resulted from Donald Trump’s camp’s refusal to acknowledge Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 US presidential election, which destabilized the government. As many as 78% of Republicans, according to Professor Kishore Mahbubani, were still not convinced that Biden’s victory was legitimate even a year later.
Donald Trump and his supporters continue to insist that he lost due to massive election fraud, especially in the states of Pennsylvania and Michigan. This, he argued, rendered the whole election unconstitutional.
American journalist Fareed Zakaria said that the series of demands and narratives built by Trump were very destructive. With his rhetoric, Trump attempted to delegitimize the election and the votes of Americans in an unprecedented way. In Fareed’s view, the constant attacks have seriously undermined the US political system and democratic culture.
Drawing a lesson from what happened in the US, we can see the big heart in Prabowo Subianto. Even though he contested the 2019 presidential election result at MK, he agreed to join Jokowi’s cabinet to save the nation from extreme polarization that threatened the stability of the government.
His decision was a pivotal moment. Many people said that he blundered because it cost him a lot of support from his party and electoral base. However, at the Gerindra National Conference on October 16, 2019, he cited three great world leaders whom he said inspired him to make the crucial decision. They are Abraham Lincoln with William H. Seward from the United States, Hideyoshi with Tokugawa from Japan, and Mao Zedong with Deng Xiaoping from China.
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Lincoln, Hideyoshi and Mao proudly embrace their political opponents to work together in building their countries. This unity is based solely on their love for their countries and people who wished to see the end of longstanding hostility and feuds.
The result of a protracted, brutal conflict is the democracy we enjoy today. The ability for citizens to choose their leaders directly is a political luxury. We cannot afford to allow it to be harmed by partisan elites who are attempting to subvert the will of the people by threatening to open a parliamentary investigation and whose candidates have lost and will no longer have access to the corridor of power. It’s time to grow up, acknowledge that Prabowo-Gibran has prevailed, and move on. (Khairul Fahmi)