Jokowi’s inauguration to proceed as scheduled

JAKARTA. The General Elections Commission (KPU) has rejected the prospect of a maneuver to disrupt the inauguration of president-elect Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and vice president-elect Jusuf Kalla, saying the ceremony will go ahead as scheduled as there is no legal ground for its cancellation.

In a bid to allay fears that politicking would affect the swearing-in ceremony, KPU commissioners met on Thursday with leaders of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) to ensure that the legislative body was ready to stage the event on Oct. 20.

“During the meeting, all the MPR leaders told us that the institution’s secretariat had prepared the necessary items for the ceremony. We are responsible for guaranteeing the inauguration proceeds as scheduled,” KPU chairman Husni Kamil Manik told reporters after holding a closed-door meeting with the MPR leaders on Thursday.

Fellow KPU commissioner Hadar Nafis Gumay said politics should play no role in the swearing-in of Jokowi and Kalla, as the two were the officially declared winners of the July 9 presidential election and, as such, they should automatically be installed as the next president and vice president.

“Any attempt to politicize or play with the inauguration would cause a public outcry. The people are watching closely right now,” Hadar said.

Concerns have been raised over the possible disruption of the inauguration since a threat was made by politicians within the Red-and-White Coalition, including lawmaker Gamari Sutrisno from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), who said a boycott of Jokowi-Kalla’s inauguration at the MPR was “highly likely”.

Since the statement was made, rumors have been circulating that certain scenarios have been prepared to disrupt the event, including a plan to persuade majority legislators to skip the plenary session at the MPR to take Jokowi’s oath of office, to ensure that a quorum could not be reached for the session.

However, a newly endorsed MPR internal regulation stipulates that any attempt to block Jokowi and Kalla from being inaugurated would be futile, as the session would proceed even with a limited number of MPR members attending.

According to Article 114 of the MPR regulation, the inauguration of a president-elect and vice president-elect is still legitimate even if they only take their oaths before the MPR’s leaders and head of the Supreme Court (MA).

“A president and vice president can be sworn in according to their respective faiths before the MPR leaders, in the presence of the head of the Supreme Court, if a plenary session fails to take place,” the article states.

The new leadership of the House of Representatives announced the details of the planned inauguration to all 10 party factions during a meeting on Thursday, and it encouraged each faction to attend.

“Don’t worry. No one will boycott the inauguration. It’s all rumor,” House Deputy Speaker Fahri Hamzah, from the PKS, said.

Aside from the speculation about shenanigans to disrupt Jokowi’s and Kalla’s swearing-in, concerns have also been raised over a possible plot to initiate an impeachment hearing against Jokowi before the end of his term in office in 2019.

Idrus Marham, a senior politician with the Red-and-White Coalition, maintained, however, that the coalition had no plan to impeach Jokowi.

“During the [presidential] election campaign, I was one of Jokowi’s most vocal critics, but since he was elected and the Constitutional Court rejected our lawsuit, we have to respect the fact that Jokowi is our president and he will be inaugurated,” he said. (Margareth S. Aritonang and Hans Nicholas Jong)