Dradjad Wibowo: Syaiful Mujani is Playing with Dangerous Fire
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA — PAN politician Dradjad Wibowo views Saiful Mujani’s statements about toppling President Prabowo as no longer objective and constructive criticism. Given the individual’s track record, Dradjad sees it as incitement or dangerous fire.
“Why? Saiful has a track record of being anti-Prabowo. In June 2014, he admitted to running a negative campaign against presidential candidate Prabowo. The accusations he made were highly negative. Readers can look it up themselves,” said Dradjad.
About nine years later, Dradjad continued, in 2023, again in June, Saiful Mujani stated, “…I do not want to have a president whose track record is dark regarding the dismissal of Prabowo Subianto at that time.”
With such a track record, said Dradjad, Saiful Mujani’s criticism of President Prabowo can no longer be called objective. “In my view, his track record shows dislike, anti,” he explained.
So when Saiful mentions toppling President Prabowo, said Dradjad, logically, one cannot accept that statement merely as an objective political stance. It has become an expression of dislike, even possibly hatred or incitement.
“This is my personal view. Whether Saiful’s statement meets the elements of hatred or incitement legally? Legal interpretation is not my expertise. Law enforcement, legal experts, and judges are the ones entitled to assess or decide it,” explained Dradjad, who is also a senior economist at INDEF.
On the other hand, as an economist, Dradjad assesses that there is no economic argument that can be used as a reason for toppling. He explained that indeed the rupiah exchange rate, fiscal stability, and Indonesia’s general economic condition are facing considerable global pressure due to the military attack on Iran. But almost all countries are experiencing it. They even raised fuel prices with quite high increases. Indonesia, on the other hand, chose to maintain fuel prices.
“Regarding the chaos issue, so far Mr JK has never made such a statement publicly. We only hear it from Said Didu, whether true or not,” he revealed.
Is the economy heading towards crisis, let alone triggering chaos? According to Dradjad, to date, there is no single indicator showing that the Indonesian economy is heading towards recession, let alone crisis. Indeed, economic performance is not as good as planned. But the economy is still positive. The exchange rate has indeed depreciated, but it has not collapsed to Rp20,000 per USD as claimed by some parties. In fact, not a few countries have also seen their currencies depreciate.
He said that the government does need to work hard to increase state revenue and maintain macroeconomic stability. “But all of that is a policy issue. Not a valid reason for toppling. Nor a strong indicator of an impending recession, crisis, let alone chaos,” he emphasised.