Jakarta – The Mutual Assistance Consultative Organization (MKGR), one of the founding organizations of Golkar Party, has opened its membership doors to former president Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and his eldest son Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka, according to MKGR chair Adies Kadir.
"We're a mass organization focusing on social activity, so we're open to anyone wishing to join us," Adies said on Wednesday, as quoted by Kompas.com, responding to questions about Jokowi and Gibran's potential entry to the group.
The MKGR, one of three Golkar founding organizations alongside Kosgoro and SOKSI, marks its 65th anniversary at the Shangri-La Jakarta in Central Jakarta on Saturday, during a national meeting that includes announcing new members to fill vacancies on its central board.
Adies said Gibran had accepted an invitation to the event, which is to open with a prerecorded message from President Prabowo Subianto, with special presidential envoy for youth and arts workers Raffi Ahmad to attend in his stead.
While the former president is not on the list of invitees, "we have prepared a place should Pak [Mr.] Jokowi be willing to attend the event", Adies said.
Jokowi rose to power over the past two decades with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) as his political machine, climbing up from the Surakarta mayoralty in Central Java to the Jakarta governorship, and then to the presidency in 2014, winning reelection in 2019.
But his relationship with the PDI-P and party matriarch Megawati Soekarnoputri soured after he spurned the party's candidate in last year's presidential election and instead backed the Gerindra Party's Prabowo, who named Gibran as his running mate.
The feud between Jokowi and the PDI-P intensified in December 2024 when Megawati expelled him, Gibran and his son-in-law Medan Mayor Bobby Nasution. (yer)