Jakarta – After claiming that they were tricked into signing a petition that angered the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the petitioners will now withdraw the motion challenging the party's structure filed at the Jakarta State Administrative Court.
The five petitioners, who are PDI-P supporters, told the media on Wednesday night that they never intended to challenge a ministerial decree confirming the new lineup of executives that the PDI-P introduced in July ahead of the candidate registration for the regional head elections.
Jairi, one of the petitioners, said a person named Anggiat BM Manalu asked them to give their signatures on a blank sheet of paper and deceived them into believing that the signatures would be used for a campaign to support efforts to uphold democracy, Kompas reported. He said Anggiat gave them Rp 300,000 (US$19.4) for every signature of support.
"We were scammed," Jairi said, as quoted from Kompas. "On behalf of the petitioners, I want to extend our apologies to PDI-P chairwoman Ibu Megawati Soekarnoputri and all PDI-P members across the country."
The court registry website shows the petition was filed on Monday with Jairi, Djupri, Manto, Suwari and Sujoko being registered as the petitioners. But it remains unclear who submitted the petition, with the court website not detailing the lawyers representing the petitioners nor the reason behind their petition.
In July, the party extended the terms of the incumbent members of the central executive board to 2025, and brought in new members who have openly criticized outgoing President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, who is nominally a PDI-P member.
The new lineup was validated by the decree signed by then law and human rights minister Yasonna Laoly of the PDI-P, reportedly without Yasonna informing the President.
This reportedly made Jokowi unhappy, but the Palace denied that Jokowi interfered with the PDI-P's new organizational structure. In August, he replaced Yasonna with Supratman Andi Agtas, a loyalist of president-elect Prabowo Subianto, who won the February election along with Jokowi's eldest son Gibran Rakabuming Raka as his running mate.
PDI-P central board members reacted angrily on Tuesday to the petition, which they described as another attempt to undermine the party during the election year. They suspect that certain political powers were behind the petition.
The PDI-P said in July that the new lineup was to help the party scale up campaigns for the November regional head elections, amid the early dominance of prospective rivals representing either Prabowo or Jokowi and the possibility of Jokowi's youngest son Kaesang Pangarep running for public office.
Since parting ways with Jokowi, the PDI-P has been vocal in criticizing what they viewed as his attempts to undermine democracy to build his own political dynasty, which Jokowi has denied. The party has recently publicly accused the outgoing administration of attacking its politicians and candidates in November's regional head elections. (ipa)