Rocky Gerung Reveals Conversation with Prabowo and Teddy at the Palace

Public intellectual Rocky Gerung revealed his conversation with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto during the inauguration of officials at the State Palace in Jakarta on Monday afternoon (27/4). “I shook hands with Mr Prabowo earlier, and he’s an old discussion partner of mine. He said, ‘Oh, Mr Rocky, thank you for coming,’ and ‘It turns out Mr Rocky is still a dissident.’ But you could see from his face it was in jest, ‘Indeed, I am a dissident’…,” Rocky told reporters in the Presidential Palace grounds in Jakarta. Quoting the Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language (KBBI), the term ‘dissident’ has two meanings. First, a person who disagrees with someone or a group’s opinion. Second, a person who refuses to obey their government because they consider it illegitimate (erroneous, etc.); a rebel. Rocky said his attendance at today’s inauguration was as a representative of civil society. He pledged to continue monitoring the performance of the Prabowo-Gibran Rakabuming Raka government cabinet, including labour figure Jumhur Hidayat, who was newly appointed as Minister of Environment. “Yes, as a civil society representative, invited to witness, and also to mark that the cabinet will be effective with figures who are former inmates,” Rocky said. “Jumhur Hidayat is a former prisoner. But he is an intellectual; he studied labour, economy, and environment at ITB. Since I know him, I accompanied him,” he added. On this day, Jumhur was inaugurated as Minister of Environment, replacing Hanif Faisol Nurofiq. Hanif Faisol has now been entrusted as Deputy Minister for Food Affairs, assisting Coordinating Minister Zulkifli Hasan. Conversation with Cabinet Secretary Teddy Not only did Prabowo shake his hand after the inauguration of the new cabinet members, Rocky was also seen chatting with Cabinet Secretary (Seskab) Lieutenant Colonel TNI Teddy Indra Wijaya before the oath-taking ceremony for the new ministers. Rocky said that on that occasion, he and Teddy discussed ethics of care and ethics of right. He explained that ethics of care means a psychological way to demonstrate leadership through body language. Rocky explained that body language is divided into two: the spoken and the hidden. “Well, I told Mr Teddy that he is capable of distinguishing when to display spoken body language and when to keep the psychological body language for opportune moments,” he said.