PSI Yogyakarta's Guerrilla Recruitment of Cadres from Other Parties
PSI Chairman Kaesang Pangarep summoned former Gunung Kidul Regent Sunaryanta to his home in central Jakarta in December 2025. Meeting for nearly an hour, Kaesang urged Sunaryanta to work hard to boost the elephant-emblem party’s votes in Yogyakarta.
“One of them is to improve the party structure to grow PSI,” said Sunaryanta when met by Tempo at his home in Dusun Kwarasan Wetan, Kedungkeris, Nglipar, Gunung Kidul, Yogyakarta, on Thursday, 9 April 2026.
In Yogyakarta, PSI only secured one provincial legislative seat. Kaesang inaugurated Sunaryanta as Chairman of the PSI Regional Leadership Council in Gunung Kidul in January 2026. The retired Indonesian Army TNI officer served as Regent of Gunung Kidul for the 2021-2025 period after being endorsed by Golkar Party and PKB. Sunaryanta decided to join PSI after Yogyakarta PSI officials proposed his name. PSI General Secretary Raja Juli Antoni summoned the TNI retiree at the party’s congress in Solo in July 2025.
Sunaryanta stated his interest in joining PSI because he had known its officials since his candidacy for regent. PSI supported Sunaryanta’s candidacy. Additionally, he cited his long-standing closeness to Kaesang’s family.
Kaesang visited Sunaryanta’s home twice. First, during the inauguration of the PSI Regional Leadership Council officials. Then, Kaesang came to Sunaryanta’s house during PSI’s Ramadan safari to several pesantren in Yogyakarta, accompanied by PSI Daily Chairman Ahmad Ali and PSI Central Board Chairman for Politics, Bestari Barus.
In that meeting, Sunaryanta said Kaesang instructed all PSI officials in Yogyakarta to strengthen cadre development and restructuring from the village to provincial levels. Additionally, Kaesang asked all officials to strengthen networks outside the party, namely PSI sympathisers and volunteers. “We have the ambition for one seat per electoral district in the 2029 legislative elections,” he said.
As someone entering a party for the first time, Sunaryanta said hard work is needed to capture votes from other parties’ bases. For example, Gunung Kidul and Sleman are known as bull pens, the voter base of PDI-Perjuangan. Meanwhile, Yogyakarta City is known as the voter base of PAN.
He is optimistic that PSI can achieve the target by mobilising all available human resources. Additionally, his experience as regent, he said, serves as capital to carry out political consolidation with his networks. Sunaryanta once served as aide to Pangkostrad and personal assistant to Ryamizard Ryacudu, Minister of Defence from 2014-2019.
After being inaugurated as Chairman of the PSI Regional Leadership Council, Sunaryanta mentioned actively conducting guerrilla efforts to recruit senior and experienced politicians from major parties. He noted that several officials from those parties, including former legislative candidates and former regional officials, are undergoing the migration process to PSI. The reasons for these figures crossing to PSI include internal elite conflicts, leadership crises, and operational funding difficulties.
PSI, he said, needs popular senior politicians among the grassroots to boost votes in the 2029 Elections. The strategy of recruiting cadres from other parties was discussed at the PSI National Work Meeting in Makassar on 29-31 January in Makassar. PSI evaluated its leadership, dominated by young people, as insufficiently reaching the grassroots base.
Sunaryanta did not deny information about several cadres from parties with significant vote shares in elections crossing to PSI. Tempo gathered information about the migration of one senior PKB politician, Sukamto. He served as a DPR member from PKB for the 2019-2024 period. Sukamto once ran for Deputy Regent of Sleman in 2024 alongside Kustini Sri Purnomo.
Sukamto was brief when Tempo confirmed his migration to PSI. “I am not yet officially a PSI official,” said Sukamto when contacted by telephone on Friday, 10 April 2026.