Jakarta – A politician with the United Development Party (PPP) has suggested president-elect Joko "Jokowi" Widodo should not bother asking his party to join the government bandwagon if nothing good awaits it there.

"They (the Jokowi camp) have opted to keep transactional politics out of the picture. Thus, they shouldn't bother asking us to join their cause. It will be a complete waste of time," secretary of the PPP's expert council Ahmad Yani said on Friday, as quoted by tempo.co.

He also expressed disappointment toward the Jokowi camp's lobbying effort, which, in his words, was like sending someone less important to do the job. Ahmad said Jokowi should have sent someone with authority to start the conversation.

In a rather different tone, PPP deputy chairman Emron Pangkapi had earlier stated it was true there were still no serious discussions happening between the PPP and Jokowi's camp regarding the upcoming power transition, but he then acknowledged that the possibility of changing sides was still on the table.

Right now, Emron said, his party had opted to honor the Red-and-White party coalition until conditions suggested it do otherwise.

The PPP, along with the Golkar Party, PAN, the PKS and Gerindra, formed the Red-and-White coalition to support the ultimately losing ticket of Prabowo Subianto and Hatta Rajasa during the recent presidential election.

Earlier, Jokowi had signalled that he would welcome any party in the Red-and-White coalition that intended to join him, but only with the condition that there wouldn't be any transactional politics undertaken in exchange for support.

Right now, the winning ticket of Jokowi and Jusuf Kalla is being supported by PDI-P, the NasDem Party, the PKB, Hanura and the PKPI. (dic)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/30/ppp-stay-away-jokowi-unless-good-jobs-await.html