PDIP Secretary-General: Party offices must side with the poor
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Secretary-General of the PDI Perjuangan Central Executive Board (DPP), Hasto Kristiyanto, emphasised the party’s ideological message that political party offices should genuinely function as people’s homes—places where the poor, the marginalised, and citizens experiencing legal injustice can seek recourse and obtain political advocacy.
Hasto conveyed this while personally leading the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the PDI Perjuangan Samosir Regency Branch Executive Board (DPC) office, located in Lumban Suhi-Suhi Toruan Village, Pangururan District, Samosir Regency, North Sumatra, on Saturday. The event was also attended by DPP Chairman Djarot Saiful Hidayat.
“Behind the office we are building lies a very strong determination: how the party office becomes a centre for organising and defending the people. The true meaning of power, as Bung Karno said, is siding with the Marhaen people, the oppressed. A party office must not be grand yet distant from the people. This office must be a place where people treated unjustly can come and find protection,” Hasto said in a written statement in Jakarta on Saturday.
The groundbreaking ceremony proceeded smoothly under clear Samosir skies. Hasto Kristiyanto, together with Djarot Saiful Hidayat and PDI Perjuangan North Sumatra Regional Executive Board (DPD) Chairman Rapidin Simbolon, took turns laying the first stone to mark the start of construction.
The physical construction of the DPC office complex is designed to include a main building, a meeting hall, and a statue of Bung Karno, with a completion target of January 2027.
In his directive speech, Hasto Kristiyanto conveyed warm greetings as well as an important mandate from PDI Perjuangan Chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri.
Hasto stressed that a party office must not be built merely as an elitist physical structure, but must possess a cultural spirit, be allied with knowledge, and radiate strong alignment with the lower classes.
“Every time I come to Samosir, Ibu Megawati always entrusts the message that this is the land that shaped world civilisation. Therefore, when we build this PDI Perjuangan DPC office, its function is not merely a house for political consolidation, recruitment, or cadre development,” he said.
He said the office must be allied with knowledge and radiate a spirit of siding with the people.
Beyond serving as a bastion of defence for ordinary people, Hasto elaborated on the importance of the party office’s role as a vehicle for progressive political education, especially for the younger generation and the children of Samosir Regency.
According to him, the PDI Perjuangan DPC office must become a centre for dialectics, literacy, and the forging of imagination for the future of the region and the nation.
History, Hasto said, has proven that great leaders such as Bung Karno and Bung Hatta were not born of luxury.
Leaders are born from ordinary people who grapple directly with suffering, poverty, and injustice, yet continue to forge themselves by reading many books and engaging in discussion.
“Therefore, this party office must later become a centre for political education and a crucible for the younger generation. From the land of Samosir, rich in civilisational history, we hope that great leaders for the Indonesian nation and state will one day be born through the forging of PDI Perjuangan,” said the PDI Perjuangan Secretary-General.
During the working visit, Hasto Kristiyanto was also accompanied by Legal Team member Johannes Oberlin Tobing, as well as Party Spokespersons Aryo Seno Bagaskoro and Mohamad Guntur Romli.