The PDI-P curiosity between Megawati and West Sumatra. Page all

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – PDI-P DPP President Megawati Sukarnoputri and DPP President Puan Maharani alluded to West Sumatra in the announcement of the Pilkada 2020 candidate pairs, Wednesday (2/9/2020).

Presenting recommendations for West Sumatra governor and lieutenant governor candidates Mulyadi-Ali Mukhni, Puan expressed hope that West Sumatra will become a province that supports Pancasila.

Meanwhile, Megawati admitted that she was surprised that the people of West Sumatra had not yet fully accepted the PDI-P, despite the fact that there were already several DPD and DPC offices there.

“If I look at West Sumatra, I think why the people of West Sumatra don’t seem to like PDI-P, even though there are regions that want a DPC or DPD,” Mega said.

Also read: Megawati: Why yes, the people of West Sumatra don’t like the PDI-P?

According to him, this made it difficult for the PDI-P to determine candidates for regional chief in West Sumatra. In fact, Mega said, many national heroes were born in West Sumatra.

“Finding a leader in the area, in my opinion, will be a bit difficult,” he said.

“In fact, if we look back at the nation’s history, many West Sumatran people became nationalists who at that time collaborated with Bung Karno (Soekarno), Bung Hatta (Moh Hatta). Bung Hatta actually came from West Sumatra.” Mega added.

Long tail

Puan and Mega’s statements had a long tail, so the PDI-P candidates for West Sumatra governor and deputy governor who were promoted by PDI-P Mulyadi and Ali Mukhni decided to return the letter of recommendation.

Mulyadi considered Puan’s statement specifically to the West Sumatra community.

The general secretary of the PDI-P, Hasto Kristiyanto, considered that Mulyadi did not have a strong leadership attitude.

“From the beginning, I suspected that Mulyadi was not strong in his leadership position, so he could easily waver in the dialectic of ideology,” Hasto said on Sunday (9/6/2020).

Hasto assessed that what Puan transmitted was a hope that West Sumatra would be much better.

Puan, according to Hasto, hopes that West Sumatra will produce such figures as Bung Hatta, KH Agus Salim, Professor Mohammad Yamin, Rohana Kudus, HR Rasuna Said, M. Natsir, Tan Malaka and others who have fought for Indonesia.

Also read: Leave PDI-P, Mulyadi-Ali Mukhni List of West Sumatra Pilgub with Democrats and PAN

Hasto said, PDI-P wants the people of West Sumatra to emulate these figures as national warriors and good learning figures. He added that Mulyadi’s attitude was well understood because power politics for those who were not strong in principle was only a means of popularity.

“In the meantime, for the PDI-P to become a leader, it must be strong and as strong as a rock facing the waves, especially when it comes to Pancasila,” he said.

No figures

The University of Andalas professor in the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Ilham Aldelino Azre, argued that the PDI-P had to change its political strategy if it wanted to win votes in West Sumatra.

One of them, the PDI-P must recruit traditional figures or local religious figures who have a strong mass base.

“We must change the political strategy by recruiting local people who have a strong mass base and are more accepted by the community,” Ilham said on Monday (7/9/2020).

Because, according to Ilham, so far the PDI-P does not have a strong figure, both nationally and locally, who is capable of attracting the hearts of the bases in West Sumatra.

Also read: Observer: PDI-P must change its political strategy if it wants to be strong in West Sumatra

Ilham said that the character of Soekarno could not be “sold” in West Sumatra. Made history in the past, West Sumatra was the base of Maskhumi, which at that time was the largest Islamic political party.

It is known that Masyumi was banned by Soekarno for allegedly supporting the Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Indonesia (PRRI).

“There are historical factors that the people of West Sumatra do not accept (about) Soekarno’s ideology,” he said.

The figures of Megawati and Puan were considered difficult to use to win the sympathy of the public.

However, Ilham said, that does not mean that the people of West Sumatra are subject to Islamic political parties.

Because, in fact, the nationalist parties have won more times in West Sumatra during the general elections.

According to Ilham, one of the factors that made these parties win was that they were able to embrace local figures who had masses or had national figures who were really influential.

The history professor at the University of Andalas, Gusti Asnan, agreed that the difficulty of being accepted by the PDI-P in West Sumatra is due in part to historical facts.

According to Gusti, since the reform era, the PDI-P has received only a few legislative seats in West Sumatra.

“We admit there are one, two, but the PDI-P’s national achievement compared to the achievements in West Sumatra is far from what they expected,” he said, on Monday (7/9/2020).

Also read: PDI-P cannot get great support in West Sumatra, this is the analysis of historians

Gusti assessed that the reason for the low number of votes of the PDI-P in West Sumatra was due to the lack of an approach consistent with local culture and wisdom.

Therefore, he hopes that Megawati and PDI-P will introspect themselves.

“In my opinion, the failure of the PDI-P in West Sumatra has something to do with the cultural approach or local wisdom that they have not applied, most of which are Minang,” Gusti said.

“This is part of the introspection of Megawati and the PDI-P, which I think they have not done,” he added.