PDIP expresses gratitude to the President for the praise voiced during the DPR RI plenary session

Jakarta – Andreas Hugo Pareira, head of Membership and Organisation on the PDIP’s Central Executive Board (DPP PDIP), expressed gratitude to President Prabowo Subianto for the praise he directed at the party during his address at the DPR RI Plenary Session.

Pareira said that PDIP, which is currently outside the government, continues to fulfil its function by delivering positive criticisms. He argued that such criticisms are necessary to provide the government with alternative perspectives on the situation at hand.

“Yes, thank you, Mr President, for the praise, and indeed PDIP should be outside (the government),” he said at the parliamentary complex in Jakarta on Wednesday.

The Deputy Speaker of Commission XIII of the DPR RI stated that although the President may feel saddened, these criticisms are needed so that the President can hear PDIP’s views. He added that the criticisms expressed are not merely about sentiment but about the rationality of looking at a situation.

“Those criticisms are certainly well-intended, and that is what we have been doing all this time,” he said.

Earlier, in his remarks at the DPR RI Plenary Session in Jakarta on Wednesday, President Prabowo Subianto thanked the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) for being at present the only party in Parliament outside the government.

According to Prabowo, PDIP has played a vital role in safeguarding democracy in Indonesia, because opposition ensures checks and balances, particularly against the executive bodies that run the government.

“Not all parties here are part of the government, and I respect and appreciate that; our democracy needs checks and balances. I understand and acknowledge that PDIP sacrifices to stay outside the government; I understand that. In fact, I want to thank PDIP. You have contributed to our democracy,” said President Prabowo in front of more than 400 DPR RI members and several state officials at the DPR RI Plenary Session at the Nusantara Building, MPR, DPR, DPD RI complex in Jakarta, on Wednesday.