Aburizal Bakrie, the chairman of Golkar (depending on who you ask) has been making some bold statements recently.In addition to declaring that the opposition Merah Putih Coalition (KMP) would start supporting President Joko Widodo’s administration, he also said that KMP founder and head Prabowo Subianto would challenge Jokowi in the 2019 election.
Of course, Prabowo was already defeated by Jokowi in the last presidential election. And Bakrie said the former general has indeed pledged his support to Jokowi… Until 2019, when he’ll take on the Man from Solo for a second round.
“Pak Prabowo openly said to Mr. Jokowi, I will support until 2019,” Bakrie told Detik on Saturday.
Then, supposedly quoting Prabowo, Bakrie said, “In 2019, if I am still strong enough, I will compete with Pak Jokowi.”
Again, given that Bakrie currently lacks the complete support of his divided Golkar party, we’re skeptical about him making claims such as these.
But Jokowi vs Prabowo round 2 would certainly be interesting. With Jokowi having lost much of his initial outsider appeal within his first few month in office (especially due to the perception he’s being controlled by PDI-P Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri) Prabowo could very well emerge victorious his second try.
