Musical Chairs and Forgiveness

NATIONAL Democrat (NasDem) Party Secretary-General Patrice Rio Capella could not figure out why a routine meeting and fast-breaking event between President Joko Widodo and coalition partners planned for Thursday last week was cancelled. He was all ready to go to the home of Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Soekarnoputri when he got the news. "Everything was ready, suddenly it was cancelled," he said.

He said this was the second such event that was suddenly cancelled. Previously, Jokowi did not attend a joint fast-breaking event at the office of the NasDem Party two weeks ago, preferring to make a trip to Batam and Bangka Belitung. Only Vice President Jusuf Kalla went to the gathering attended by leaders of the coalition parties. "It's not clear why it wasn't held," said Rio.

June 30, 2015