IO – The National Mandate Party (Partai Amanat Nasional – “PAN”) is currently seeking the perfect political alliance formula for the upcoming 2024 Elections. This move is even more critical with the new appearance of the Ummah Party, founded by former PAN member and founder Amien Rais.
Institute for Democracy and Strategic Studies (“Indostrategic”)’s Executive Director, Khoirul Umam, reported that PAN is using a “double-strategy” political approach. PAN aggressively shows its support of the Government behind the scenes, with the hope of getting ministerial seats in the Cabinet. This approach indicates that PAN is not strong enough to refrain from seeking power. “PAN strives to show how much they differ from the Ummah Party, which has clearly positioned themselves as the opposition, and to secure their political vessel to keep it from getting even more broken down by invisible hands,” he said.
Umam repeats his observation that PAN’s political approach to the current holders of power remains ineffective, causing them to seek new political alliance formula for the upcoming 2024 Elections. “If PAN expects to maintain its Parliamentary survival by 2024, it must be able to secure its political roots from the Ummah Party political attacks. If the new Amien Rais Party can steal just 2% of PAN’s captive market votes in the Muhammadiyah, PAN’s vote base will be degraded and it will not be able to achieve Parliamentary Threshold requirement,” he said. “Therefore,
PAN’s primary political figures and patrons, such as Zulhas, Hatta Rajasa, and Soetrisno Bachir must work hard to secure the Party’s political existence for 2024. We can say that the recent meeting between DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan and PAN Chairman Zulkifli Hasan (“Zulhas”) is one of these efforts to test the waters for potential political alliance, or at least as an effort to gain sympathy from this alliance.”
Meanwhile, PAN General Chairman Zukifli Hasan only blandly responded to Amien Rais’ latest political effort. “Amien Rais has the right to establish his own political party, just like any other citizen of Indonesia. We can only say ahlan wa sahlan, a smooth welcome to our brothers, to the Party,” Zulhas said diplomatically. (des)