Jokowi's Joke on Gerindra's Anniversary: Prabowo is So Strong, Jokowi Criticizes Him

JAKARTA, KOMPAS - The 7th President of the Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, was given the opportunity to deliver a speech during the 17th Anniversary celebration of Gerindra, in Sentul, Bogor Regency, West Java, on Saturday (15/2/2025). In his speech, he jokingly remarked how public criticism is often not directed at the President who is also the Chairman of Gerindra, Prabowo Subianto, but instead, the criticism is aimed at him. Even though he is no longer in the government.

At the Gerindra anniversary celebration event, Jokowi was given the opportunity to deliver a speech in front of thousands of Gerindra cadres present. When starting his speech, Jokowi recounted how he eventually agreed to give a speech at the peak event of the Gerindra anniversary celebration.

Jokowi admitted that he had tried to negotiate with the Secretary General of Gerindra, Ahmad Muzani, and the Daily Chairman of Gerindra, Sufmi Dasco Ahmad, on Friday night (14/2/2025), to not give a speech at this event. However, they remained adamant and conveyed that this was Prabowo's request.

"If the supreme commander requests, I cannot refuse," said Jokowi while demonstrating a military salute with his right hand, which was then met with applause from the cadres.

Jokowi then appreciated the public satisfaction level with Prabowo's administration, which has only been in office for 100 days but has already reached 80.9 percent.

This contrasts with the public satisfaction level during the first period of his administration, which reached 60 percent and then dropped to 50 percent due to the increase in fuel prices.

Moreover, Prabowo also received political support from more than 80 percent of the political parties holding seats in the DPR. Thus, Prabowo is referred to as the president with the strongest support, both from the people and political support from the parliament.

"Mr. Prabowo is so powerful that no one dares to criticize him. The one being criticized (by the public) is Jokowi. For every little thing, Jokowi is blamed," he said while laughing.

Apart from that, Jokowi said, strong public and political support is an important capital to realize all government programs. Under Prabowo's leadership, he also believes that Gerindra will become a bigger party. Moreover, the way the party with the third most seats in parliament works is said to be similar to a grinding machine.

"(Like a grinder) that which can be smoothed, be smoothed. That which cannot be smoothed, be invited continuously, embraced," said Jokowi.

In addition to Jokowi and Prabowo, the celebration of Gerindra's 17th anniversary was attended by Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka, high-ranking political parties (parpol) of the Advanced Indonesia Coalition (KIM) plus, a coalition of political parties supporting Prabowo's government. Also present were elites from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the only political party outside the government. PDI-P was represented by PDI-P Deputy Treasurer Olly Dondokambey and PDI-P DPP Chairman Said Abdullah.

Gerindra under Prabowo's leadership has developed into one of the largest parties after the 1998 Reformation. Entering its 16th year in 2024, Gerindra has succeeded in delivering Prabowo as President-elect. Prabowo, who was paired with Gibran Rakabuming Raka, won the 2024 Presidential Election which was contested by three candidate pairs in one round.

The victory was achieved after repeated failures. Prabowo lost twice to Joko Widodo, the 7th President of the Republic of Indonesia who is also Gibran's father, in the 2014 and 2019 presidential elections. Previously, in the 2009 presidential election, Prabowo had also run as a vice presidential candidate to accompany the PDI-P General Chairperson and the 5th President of the Republic of Indonesia Megawati Soekarnoputri, but lost to the Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono-Budiono pair.

Not only did it lead Prabowo to become President, from period to period Gerindra's vote acquisition and seats in the DPR also continued to increase.

In the 2009 Election when it first participated in the election, Gerindra won 26 seats, then shot up to 73 seats in the 2014 Election, and won 78 seats in the 2019 Election. Coinciding with the victory in the Presidential Election, Gerindra's seat gain in the 2024 Election also increased again to 86 seats.

Although the trend of its vote and seat acquisition continues to rise, Gerindra has never been a winning party in an election. The latest achievement placed Gerindra in third place after the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the Golkar Party, which were the first and second winners of the most votes and seats in the 2024 Election.

However, Gerindra's reputation continues to rise. Referring to the results of a survey by the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) on January 20-28, 2025, Gerindra's electability rate reached 38.1 percent or the highest among other political parties participating in the 2024 Election. The distance between Gerindra's electability and PDI-P and Golkar is also wide. Golkar is in second place with an electability of 10.2 percent, followed by PDI-P in third place with an electability rate of 9.3 percent.

Postdoctoral Researcher at The Atma Jaya Institute for Advance Research, Unika Atma Jaya, Yoes C Kenawas, said that Gerindra's achievements over the past 17 years need to be appreciated. This is because not all political parties that were established after the reformation can consistently place themselves at the top of the party that passed to parliament, including delivering their cadres to become President.

Some political parties are actually stagnant in the lower middle and lower boards. In fact, there are also parties that have existed since the New Order era that are now eliminated from the DPR.

This achievement, said Yoes, is inseparable from the process of party institutionalization and increasingly strong cadre formation. In recent years, Gerindra has been actively recruiting young cadres and placing them in significant roles, both in the party and the DPR. Now, along with the formation of the Prabowo-Gibran government, a number of Gerindra cadres have also become ministers and deputy ministers.

"But what cannot be denied is Prabowo's patronage which is also strong in Gerindra. Because, the people (young Gerindra cadres) who are now playing a role are people closest to Prabowo. So, the merit system that is applied is actually still thin, the patronage factor is actually still strong," he said.

Therefore, according to Yoes, the institutionalization and cadre formation carried out by Gerindra have not been tested to be able to free the party from Prabowo's patronage.