Budiarti Utami Putri, Jakarta – Leaders of political parties joined in the Jokowi-Ma'ruf Amin coalition reportedly held a meeting on Wednesday evening, June 23. Their physical meeting was evident in the photo shared by PSI secretary Raja Juli through his Twitter account.
Those who were present include chairpersons of political parties such as: PDIP, NasDem, PPP, PKB, Perindo, PSI, PBB, Golkar, and Hanura.
Raja Juli claimed "the meeting discussed nothing urgent and was only a dinner reunion," Raja tweeted on June 23. "Surely [we did it] under strict health protocols."
The images show the political party secretary generals gather in a large group at a dinner table and sit closely next to each other, wearing face masks.
The tweet was heavily criticized by Twitter users that deemed them 'insensitive' with the current Covid-19 surge, added by the fact that the PSI secretary claimed the meeting was "nothing urgent."
The internet users criticized that the gathering was a form of 'herd stupidity' and that major political party members had 'no sense of crisis' toward the country's emergency event. Especially after such a gathering was shared on social media, as it goes against the government's call to avoid public gathering in order to suppress the spread of Covid-19.
Tempo confirmed this gathering to NasDem secretary Johnny G. Plate on Thursday, June 24, to which he replied "It was my turn to invite them, prior to this it was Hasto who invited us," he said. Johnny, who is also the Communication and Informatics Minister, said that the meeting did not discuss the 2024 presidential election.