Jokowi Might Embrace Gerindra Through Cabinet Appointments

Jakarta (Antara) - President Joko Widodo, or Jokowi, will most likely embrace the Greater Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), the political party of Prabowo Subianto, his opponent in the presidential election on July 9, a researcher said. "It is possible that the president will embrace members of Gerindra to ease the tensions from the presidential race," a senior researcher of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Siti Zuhro, stated here on Saturday. She remarked that the term "absolute" did not exist in politics and that it was an art of managing possibilities to obtain power. However, Zuhro pointed out that if Jokowi accepts Gerindra, the Red-White Coalition (KMP) that was established to act as a check and balancing power against the government would become ineffective. The role of the KMP would become unclear and Indonesia would again be governed under the model of a joint political party coalition, which was seen during former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's term. This political model accommodates the interests of all political parties. "It will eventually function like a coalition where ministers share their posts," she explained. (*)