Almost everybody in Jokowi’s Team (Praboro-Gibran) trying to kissing ass by attacking LFP batteries. The latest, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, coordinating minister for maritime and investment affairs, said LFP can not be recycled so that nickel batteries is more superior than LFP, but he didn’t mention about their superiority in cycle life, safety characteristics, and cost efficiency.

Former Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who is a political mentor and patron figure of presidential candidate Anies Baswedan, had an interview with CNN Indonesia and Kompas on Tuesday (Jan. 23). Kalla talked about many issues in his interviews, but we would like to discuss his statement on a possible meeting between Megawati Soekarnoputri, the matriarch of the ruling party PDIP, and media mogul Surya Paloh, the chairman of Nasdem Party and another patron figure of Anies.

The polemic continues following the latest statement from President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo. Jokowi stated that a President is allowed to campaign and take sides in the election. Let’s talk a bit about this polemic.

Vice president candidate Muhaiman Iskandar was considered ‘anti-nickel’, while intellectual capacity of Thomas (Tom) Lembong, co-captain of Anies-Muhaimin campaign, is now seriously doubted by Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, coordinating minister for maritime and investment affairs, when Muhaimin and Tom criticized the government’s policy on nickel processing. Why Jokowi’s supporters (and accordingly Prabowo-Gibran campaign) are getting emotional?

There has been a lot of questions and criticisms on President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo regarding his neutrality during the 2024 presidential race. The same thing goes to the ministers, state apparatus, military and the police. Most recently, Ganjar Pranowo, a presidential candidate from a coalition led by the ruling party PDIP, made a suggestion to the ministers who are now competing in 2024 race, including his own running mate Mahfud MD and his rival Prabowo Subianto, to resign from the cabinet to avoid conflict of interest. Jokowi himself should have taken a campaign leave because his son is in the race.

In the past, most people believe that major business groups put their eggs in all available baskets to mitigate risks. Looks like, however, things have changed. While it is not a secret of involvement of Garibaldi ‘Boy’ Thohir in presidential elections, the gathering attended by president candidate Prabowo Subianto last night, at least based on Boy’s claim, conglomerates reportedly controlling one-third of Indonesian economy declared support for Prabowo-Gibran.

Megawati Soekarnoputri, the matriarch of the ruling party PDIP, was present in the mass campaign of Ganjar Pranowo-Mahfud MD held in Bandung, West Java on Sunday (Jan. 21). Megawati’s presence is worth highlighting because this is perhaps the first time for her to attend Ganjar-Mahfud’s public campaign.

General Agus Subiyanto instituted the third round of job rotation during his term as the Military Commander (Panglima TNI). Around 114 high-ranking military officers were affected in this rotation, including the commander of the National Military Police (Danpuspom TNI).

Tempo reported that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo made a request for a meeting with Megawati Soekarnoputri, the matriarch of the ruling party PDIP. If the report is true, will Megawati accept Jokowi’s request? After all of these tensions and political breakup, will...