Zulhas Reveals Reasons for PAN's Support of Prabowo Over the Past 15 Years
Chairman of the National Mandate Party (PAN), Zulkifli Hasan, revealed the reasons behind his party’s steadfast support for Prabowo Subianto over the past 15 years, or across three presidential elections.
Despite the risks of defeat and legal consequences for its cadres when supporting Prabowo, the party remained loyal.
Zulhas, as he is affectionately known, stated this while delivering guidance at the Regional Working Meeting (Rakerwil) I and the Installation of the PAN East Java Provincial Board and City/Regency Boards for the 2025-2030 period at Jatim Expo, Surabaya, on Sunday (10/5) evening.
Zulhas openly addressed the severe risks faced by party cadres in the regions due to their consistent support for Prabowo in the 2014 and 2019 presidential elections.
He claimed that this consistency led to many PAN regional heads facing legal consequences, forcing some to switch parties to preserve their political careers.
“Why did PAN support Mr Prabowo three times? We lost. Our regents and governors went to prison. If not prison, they switched [parties]. Our party dropped from number 5 to number 7, but we stayed consistent,” said Zulhas, who is currently the Coordinating Minister for Food in the Prabowo administration cabinet.
Despite losing twice in the 2014 and 2019 presidential elections, Zulhas affirmed that PAN did not want to be a party that easily changes direction just to chase power positions.
As a result, they continued supporting Prabowo in the 2024 presidential election and achieved victory, ushering in the Gerindra Chairman as Indonesia’s 8th President.
“Our struggle with Gerindra was extraordinary, full of ups and downs,” Zulhas stated.
For him, the party’s main asset is public trust. He assessed that if a political party starts playing both sides or lacks consistency between words and actions, it will lose dignity in the eyes of the people.
“Because the National Mandate Party’s asset is trust and loyalty. We can’t say A and do B. We would have no face if we did that. Yes means yes, no means no. No left-left, right-right,” he said.
“Because the National Mandate Party’s asset is loyalty and faithfulness. The name itself is amanah, trusted. So we hold firmly to that, therefore our loyalty to the people is our faithfulness,” added the veteran cabinet and parliamentary figure.
Additionally, Zulhas revealed a strong bond of vision between PAN and Prabowo.
Over more than a decade of coalition, Zulhas admitted to learning much from the Gerindra Chairman, particularly regarding the classification of leaders needed by Indonesia.
“We were with Mr Prabowo three times because of shared ideals, shared policies, shared struggles. Now, because we’ve been with Mr Prabowo for so long, I’ve absorbed a lot of knowledge from him,” said Zulhas.
Zulhas mentioned that Prabowo once explained the ‘good leader’, a type of leader with the ability to manage tactics and strategy. Then there is the ‘great leader’, namely a leader with the most logistics.
“But the best, the best is the ‘brilliant leader’. What is that? A leader who can choose people. A leader who can select tough managerial human resources,” he said.
According to Zulhas, a leader’s ability to select quality human resources (HR) will become a magnet for other successes. He believes that strategy and logistical support will come automatically.
“If we can choose great people, then logistics will come. Tactics and strategy will come. If we choose the wrong people, logistics run away, tactics run away. But if we choose the right people, good people, great people, logistics, tactics, strategy will come by themselves,” he explained.
PAN Targets Top Three
At the end of his guidance, Zulhas instructed all PAN officials and volunteers in East Java to work hard to elevate the party’s position to the top three.
He reminded them that although competing tightly with other major parties, the competition must remain within the framework of national progress.
“There is PDIP, there is Gerindra, there is Golkar, there is PKB, what’s the difference? What’s the difference between us and them? If others can be number one, number two, number three, can PAN be number three? If friends [from other parties] can, InsyaAllah we can,” he said.
For information, PAN has supported Prabowo since the 2014 presidential election, or the last three presidential elections. In the 2014 presidential election, PAN paired its leader, Hatta Rajasa, as the vice presidential candidate to accompany Prabowo.
Zulhas himself, throughout his political career, besides being PAN Chairman, has also served as MPR Chairman. Additionally, he has been involved in government as Minister of Forestry in the era of Indonesia’s sixth President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) and Minister of Trade in the era of Indonesia’s seventh President Joko Widodo (Jokowi).