Top Democrat official says willing to work with devil to beat Jokowi

POLITIC - JAKARTA. Democratic Party deputy secretary-general Rachland Nashidik has tweeted a controversial message saying he is ready to work with the devil to beat President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in the next year’s election.

“I want to change the president! If for that I must cooperate with the devil, I will do it. Especially if only with Prabowo,” Rachland, through his Twitter handle @RachlanNashidik, tweeted in the wee hours on Thursday.

The tweet came following Democratic Party chairman Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s forging of a coalition with the Gerindra Party and publicly supporting the presidential candidacy of its chairman, Prabowo, in the 2019 presidential election. The Democrats previously made overtures to Jokowi’s camp for a possible alliance before finally deciding to team up with Gerindra.

The tweet attracted scores of replies from netizens, who either slammed or agreed with Rachland.

He said his tweet was intended to show that despite being a democratic country, there were not many options for the public to choose their next leader in the 2019 presidential election. The high presidential threshold requirements, he said, limited the options for political parties.

“There is no ideal luxury in today’s democracy of Indonesia,” he said on Thursday.

The 2017 Elections Law requires a party or coalition of parties to secure at least 20 percent of the seats at the House of Representatives or 25 percent of the popular vote to be eligible to nominate a presidential candidate in next year's election.

“The options are riding a horse or a bike. I choose to ride a horse,” he said, referring to the respective pastimes of Prabowo, who owns and rides horses, and Jokowi, who often grants bikes to people during working visits.