NasDem: What Surya Paloh Offers is a "Political Bloc", Not a Merger

Jakarta (ANTARA) - NasDem Party’s Deputy Chairman for the Central Board, Willy Aditya, stated that the General Chairman of the NasDem Party, Surya Paloh, is actually offering the concept of a political bloc, rather than a merger or fusion with other political parties.

This statement was made by Willy in response to rumours that the NasDem Party would merge with the Gerindra Party.

“What is being offered by Surya Paloh is a political bloc. A political bloc, not a merger,” he said when met in the parliamentary complex, Senayan, Jakarta, on Monday.

He explained that a political bloc is part of political engineering as an effort to stem the current tendency of political parties to engage in transactional relationships.

“It’s been very transactional all this time, right? Well, we need a solid political bloc from top to bottom, like that. The understanding shouldn’t be merger, come on,” he said.

He regretted those who use the merger narrative. According to him, the term is not appropriate in the political context.

Willy acknowledged that Indonesia’s political landscape has previously been marked by fusions or mergers of parties, but that was done on the basis of state decisions.

“We have had a tradition of party fusions, but it was driven from above by those in power. The merging of parties only happened twice: Islamic parties becoming PPP, nationalist parties becoming PDI,” he explained.

He assessed that those using the merger narrative have failed to grasp Surya Paloh’s idea, which he believes is full of reflective considerations.

“They (those using the merger narrative) should capture that Pak Surya is someone who thinks out of the box. We’ve been thinking only about shared secretariats, coalition parties. Coalitions are in the candidate nomination process. Meanwhile, in government, we don’t know coalitions,” he said.

“We have a presidential system; coalition government is known in parliamentary systems,” he continued, explaining the background of the political bloc idea.

He further exemplified the implementation of political blocs in Indonesia.

“Golkar is a political bloc. Remember the old law, the Political Parties and Functional Groups Law. That means we had two political blocs, right? One, back when Bung Karno issued the decree, it was called the National Front, named Nasakom. The second, the functional groups, previously Sekber Golkar. That was a political bloc,” said Willy.

Meanwhile, when asked about the meeting between Surya Paloh and President Prabowo Subianto, who is also the General Chairman of the Gerindra Party, Willy said it was a normal matter.

“It’s normal for two friends to meet. When Pak Prabowo first came to Gondangdia (NasDem Tower), we discussed for six hours about many things. Where is there something more familiar, more intimate, to be able to dialect like that? Surya Paloh and Pak Prabowo at that time could discuss equally about many things,” he said.