Ahmad Ali Addresses Timing of PSI Jacket Presentation to Jokowi

Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) Daily Chair Ahmad Ali has spoken out regarding the plan to present a party jacket to Indonesia’s 7th President, Joko Widodo (Jokowi). He explained that the procession is essentially just a ceremonial formality. However, according to him, Jokowi is already a part of PSI even though the party jacket has not been formally bestowed. “The jacket presentation, or whatever it is called, is a ceremonial form. But actually, if we follow the sequence of Mr Jokowi’s statements about PSI, I think these are statements that should be interpreted as to whether or not Mr Jokowi is PSI,” he told reporters on Sunday (14/6). Ahmad Ali then recalled that during the PSI Congress in Solo and the PSI National Working Meeting in Makassar, Jokowi explicitly stated he would go down to the sub-district level to assist PSI. “In essence, implicitly, he already is, according to me, today he is PSI,” he said. On the same occasion, he also responded to several parties who have sneered at Jokowi’s planned political safari tours to various regions. He considered such an agenda to be normal for Jokowi as a national figure. “Interpreting Mr Jokowi’s safari journey is the same as the journeys of Ibu Mega, Mr SBY, Mr Ahmad Ali. It’s a normal thing in the political world,” he stated. “The problem is that today certain people are stirring this up, making it out to be something strange, something inappropriate for Jokowi to do,” he added. Previously, PSI Deputy Chair of the Board of Trustees, Grace Natalie, revealed that Indonesia’s 7th President Joko Widodo would soon officially wear the PSI jacket as Chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees. Grace stated that PSI is currently accelerating the completion of its management structure down to the village and sub-district levels throughout Indonesia in preparation for the party verification process. “So PSI nationally, in all provincial executive boards, must complete the structure down to the village and sub-district levels. Not just in NTT, this is happening simultaneously in other regions as well, because next year we enter verification, and we are promptly completing this so that the Chairman of the Board of Trustees can formally wear the PSI jacket soon and greet the public,” said Grace during a visit to Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), on Saturday (13/6). According to Grace, the acceleration of the organisational structure formation is intended so that the party machinery can move immediately once Jokowi officially appears as the Chairman of the PSI Board of Trustees. She assessed that the preparations made by PSI administrators in NTT were progressing well, though some refinements were still needed before Jokowi’s arrival in the region.