Moment When Rocky Gerung Chats with Teddy and Prabowo at the Palace

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Academic Rocky Gerung briefly conversed with Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya and President Prabowo Subianto during a break at the inauguration of several state officials at the State Palace in Jakarta on Monday.

According to ANTARA observations, Rocky, wearing a brown batik shirt, arrived at the State Palace to attend the inauguration of Mohammad Jumhur Hidayat as Chairman of the All-Indonesian Confederation of Trade Unions (KSPSI) as Minister of Environment.

Rocky arrived with several other activists, including Syahganda Nainggolan. Rocky, who was in the back row, was then approached by Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya.

The two appeared to converse warmly, interspersed with Rocky patting Teddy on the shoulder. Shortly afterwards, the state officials’ inauguration ceremony began.

After the inauguration, President Prabowo and Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka shook hands with the newly inaugurated officials, their families, and invited guests, including Rocky.

During the handshake moment, Rocky and Prabowo engaged in a brief warm conversation interspersed with laughter. Rocky also shook hands with Gibran, accompanied by smiles.

After the meeting, Rocky explained that he was present as a representative of civil society invited to witness the inauguration and to accompany Jumhur Hidayat, whom he has known for a long time.

He described Jumhur as an intellectual figure who understands labour, economic, and environmental issues. According to him, this background was the reason for his presence to accompany the new Minister of Environment’s inauguration.

“Jumhur Hidayat is a former political prisoner, but he is an intellectual; he studied labour, economy, and environment at ITB. So because I know him, I accompanied him. That’s why I’m here,” Rocky told the media.

Regarding his conversation with Cabinet Secretary Teddy, Rocky said it was about leadership ethics, particularly the importance of body language in demonstrating leadership.

“Yes, I spoke with the Cabinet Secretary about the ethics of care and ethics of rights. The ethics of care means psychologically showing leadership through body language. Not through the body, but through body language. Our body language has two aspects: spoken body language and hidden body language,” said Rocky.

He assessed that Teddy is capable of distinguishing when to display open body language and when to reserve certain psychological attitudes.

“I told Mr Teddy that he is able to distinguish when to showcase spoken body language and when to keep the psychological body language for opportune moments,” he said.

Meanwhile, in his conversation with President Prabowo, Rocky said they greeted each other as old discussion partners. He described the meeting as casual and accompanied by jokes.

“With Mr Prabowo, we shook hands earlier, and Mr Prabowo is my old discussion friend. And he said, ‘Wow, Mr Rocky, thank you for coming, and it turns out Mr Rocky is still a dissident.’ But you could see his face was joking. Indeed, I am a dissident. Do you know what dissident means?” said Rocky.

In the Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language, “dissident” can be interpreted as a person who disagrees with someone’s or a group’s opinion.

On that occasion, Rocky also gave his views on the Ministry of Environment now led by Jumhur Hidayat.

According to him, the Ministry of Environment is a ministry with a global dimension because environmental issues are not only a national concern but also a global attention.

He noted that around 70 million Generation Z in Indonesia are awaiting the government’s stance on environmental issues. According to him, this youth group will judge the government’s seriousness in understanding environmental problems.

Therefore, he views Jumhur as representing the interests of the younger generation on environmental issues.

“So I consider Mr Jumhur to represent the interests of at least 70 million young people directly. Especially if connected to the desire to make the environment a contribution from us to the global world planet. That’s the core,” he said.

Rocky emphasised that he is not part of the cabinet but will continue to monitor from his civil society position and ensure support for the environmental policies implemented by the Minister of Environment.

“Of course, I am not part of the cabinet, but I want to assure that civil society will stand with Mr Jumhur, because Mr Jumhur is an activist; he understands economic difficulties; he is a labour leader. So once again, Mr Jumhur understands politics,” he concluded.

It is known that President Prabowo inaugurated several state officials at the State Palace in Jakarta on Monday afternoon. The inaugurated officials are Muhammad Qodari as Head of the Government Communication Agency (Bakom) of the Republic of Indonesia, Hasan Nasbi as Presidential Special Advisor for Communication, TNI General (Ret.) Dudung Abdurachman as Head of the Presidential Staff Office (KSP), Abdul Kadir Karding as Head of the Quarantine Agency, Jumhur Hidayat as Minister of Environment, and Hanif Faisol Nurofiq as Deputy Minister Coordinator for Food Affairs.