Observer Talks about Prabowo’s duet with Ganjar or Airlangga

CNN Indonesia

Wednesday, 22 Mar 2023 13:48 WIB

Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —

Political communication observers talk about the chances of the General Chair of Gerindra Prabowo Subianto who is running for president again.

It is predicted that Prabowo’s chances in the 2024 presidential election will widen.

A number of figures began to be mentioned as potential vice presidential candidates from the minister of defense in the era of President Joko Widodo (Jokowi).

The chairman of the Golkar Party, Airlangga Hartarto, said that the discourse on his duet with Prabowo had been discussed in depth. Previously, the former Kopassus commander also had a meeting with the Governor of Central Java, Ganjar Pranowo.

According to Political Communication Observer from Esa Unggul University M Jamiluddin Ritonga, Prabowo’s chances of being paired with various cawapres candidates are very open.

“The opportunity for Prabowo to be paired with various candidates for vice president is very open. Prabowo and Ganjar are most worthy of winning if they are paired in the 2024 presidential election,” Jamiluddin told CNNIndonesia.comWednesday (22/3).

However, according to him, the Prabowo-Ganjar pair can be realized if the General Chairperson of the PDIP, Megawati Soekarnoputri, approves it.

He considered this opportunity to be smaller after Megawati said that her party would nominate a presidential candidate from its own cadres several times.

“Megawati also doesn’t necessarily support Ganjar. If Mega carries Puan, then efforts to match Prabowo-Ganjar will be difficult to materialize,” he said.

He considered that Prabowo’s obstacle in pairing with Airlangga was not as big as Ganjar’s. According to him, the Gerindra and Golkar parties are enough to support Prabowo-Airlangga.

“It’s just that Airlangga is weak in terms of electability. Therefore, the Prabowo and Airlangga pair must work hard to be able to win the 2024 presidential election,” he said.

On the other hand, Political Analyst and Algebra Strategic Executive Director Arifki Chaniago believes that Prabowo Ganjar’s scheme, which is endorsed by Jokowi, is indeed equally profitable.

“However, is Jokowi’s plan the same as Megawati’s? Because it will affect the PDIP which wants to carry their child, Puan Maharani,” he said.

He himself considered the Prabowo Ganjar duet to be a complicated matter because both of them were the number one star and the PDI-P did not want to be number two.

“However, it will be beneficial from an electoral perspective if the two run. On the other hand, Prabowo Airlangga’s narrative has plus points as Jokowi’s people,” said Arifki.

Completely, Arifki assesses that KIB will be a big strength for the Gerindra Party. According to him, Airlangga and Prabowo also complement each other because the chairman of the Golkar Party is not a dominant figure.

“The pair also complement each other, Airlangga is quite capable in the country’s economic sector, while Prabowo is in foreign relations,” he said.

Even so, political observer at Al-Azhar Indonesia University Ujang Komarudin said politics is not mathematics, he views politics as an art of possibility.

“Right now politics is still dynamic, fluid and just a discourse. It could be that Prabowo is with Ganjar, Airlangga, even BUMN Minister Erick Thohir,” he said.

Ujang assessed that Prabowo Ganjar’s and Airlangga’s schemes could be played. However, Prabowo must also measure the strength of the opponent and the electability of other candidates for vice president.

“It depends on the people who judge who deserves to be Prabowo’s deputy vice president. In addition, politics in the presidential election usually starts at the end or at the end before the registration for the presidential and cawapres candidates,” said Ujang.

(psr/bac)