NasDem Party Deputy Chairman Willy Aditya has denied rumours of a\nmerger between NasDem and Gerindra. Willy emphasised that what NasDem\nGeneral Chairman Surya Paloh meant was a political bloc.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, friends, so as not to be misled in thinking. This is about\nterminology, but terminology has substance. I joke that you all need to\nsee what our references are. Mr Surya is someone who is concerned about\nour political situation. Our reference for politics is the political\nbloc. People discussing this are poor in political literature, I say\nthey are poor in political literature. That\u2019s why they use the term\nmerger,\u201d Willy said to reporters at the House of Representatives in\nSenayan, Jakarta, on Monday (13\/4\/2026).<\/p>\n
Willy stressed that \u201cmerger\u201d is a corporate term and not appropriate\nto describe what Surya Paloh wants. He regretted that some parties are\nusing the \u201cmerger\u201d narrative.<\/p>\n
\u201cUse the appropriate reference term for the right thing. Don\u2019t make\nit up. If you don\u2019t understand or you want to discredit, that\u2019s another\nstory. I want to ask those who are discoursing this: are they\ndiscrediting NasDem and Gerindra, or do they not understand political\nliterature, they just talk nonsense,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He discussed that in the past, party fusions did occur, such as\nIslamic parties becoming PPP, while nationalist parties became PDIP.\nThen, Willy considered it a lack of knowledge when people interpreted\nSurya Paloh\u2019s intention as merging NasDem and Gerindra. In fact, he\nsaid, Surya Paloh was only proposing a political bloc.<\/p>\n
\u201cVery poor. I actually regret people who don\u2019t read this, their talk\nspreads everywhere, they don\u2019t read. He should capture that Mr Surya is\nsomeone who thinks out of the box. We\u2019ve always thought only about joint\nsecretariats, coalition parties. Coalition is in the candidacy process.\nMeanwhile, in the government process, we don\u2019t know coalitions, we have\na presidential system. Coalition government is known in parliamentary\nsystems,\u201d Willy stated.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is offered by Surya Paloh is a political bloc, a political\nblock, not a merger. What is a political bloc? This is a form of\npolitical engineering, how policy struggles become a breath, not\ntransactional. We\u2019ve been very transactional so far,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n
Willy then further explained Surya Paloh\u2019s intention with the\npolitical bloc. According to him, current political cooperation between\nparties tends to be minimal.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr Surya is full of reflective considerations, why? Because the\ntendency of our political parties in political cooperation processes is\nminimal. You can see, they don\u2019t agree to join here, don\u2019t agree there.\nSo the dominant narrative with us is either jumping ship, or creating\nnew parties, right? True or not? That\u2019s the dominant narrative with us.\nBut we never have a narrative on how we can do collective political\nengineering together while independence remains, what unites us is the\nobjective,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Meeting between Surya Paloh and Prabowo<\/p>\n
Then, Willy also explained regarding the meeting between Surya Paloh\nand President Prabowo Subianto. According to him, the meeting was normal\nbetween the two who are friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s normal. Two friends meeting. You can imagine when Mr Prabowo\nfirst came to Gondangdia, we discussed for six hours about many things.\nWhere there are more intimate things to dialectics like that. Surya\nPaloh with Mr Prabowo at that time could discuss equally about many\nthings. I and my colleagues at that time, in the second layer, could\ntranslate it into a political cooperation framework like what. That\u2019s\nactually more productive,\u201d Willy said.<\/p>\n
He said the narrative developing over that meeting is too\nnegative.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis narrative has too negative a tone, no republican imagination,\nthe imagination is conflict, chaos. We should prioritise advancing\nrepublican imagination. What is republican imagination? Political bloc,\nand that has never been exercised. Mr Surya, you can confirm first, when\nwith Mr TK (Taufiq Kiemas) making national silaturahmi between PDIP and\nGolkar at that time, going around Indonesia everywhere. Did Golkar\u2019s\nexistence get disturbed, did PDIP\u2019s existence get disturbed? No.\u201d<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/willy-denies-nasdem-gerindra-merger-rumour-surya-paloh-proposes-political-bloc-1776088251", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }