Widodo does not need to increase coalition: Observer

If we talk about a democratic perspective, I don't think it is important that (the coalition) must be big because if the opposition is small, 'check and balances' are lacking

There was no need to add more parties to join the coalition of supporters of Jokowi-Ma'ruf Amin, Political observer of the Syarif Hidayatullah state Islamic university, Jakarta, Iding Rosyidin said.

"If we talk about a democratic perspective, I don't think it is important that (the coalition) must be big, because if the opposition is small, 'check and balances' are lacking," Rosyidin said when contacted here Monday.

For example, there is the National Mandate Party (PAN), which from the beginning became the Prabowo-Sandiaga coalition party, Rosyidin said adding that PAN should not join the Jokowi-Ma'ufuf coalition.

While for Democrats, Rosyidin assessed that since the beginning they had joined the Prabowo coalition only to fulfill Prabowo's requirements to advance in the nomination of the 2019 Presidential Election.

"For Democrats, even though they are in the coalition (Prabowo-Sandi), yesterday it was just not fulfilling the requirements, it was not fully visible to the Democrats," he said.

On the other hand, on a parliamentary seat count, Jokowi-Ma'ruf coalition was superior. Therefore, an addition in the coalition parties is not necessary, he said.

Meanwhile, the decision of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) to remain an opposition party was right, according to Rosyidin.

"PKS is a medium power. Actually, in my opinion, the PKS is good in opposition with Gerindra, with a pretty 10 percent victory of the candidates, the highest achievement for PKS," he explained.

However, the right opposition was an opposition that could provide criticism as well as solutions, not critics who seemed to be "nosy", Rosyidin stressed.

He gave an example of the government of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) when the Democrats came to power, the PDI-P as the opposing party was an example of an opposition that could be the balance of the government at that time.

"The problem is just how to be the opposition. Well, Gerindra's mistake is that his opposition tends to be from criticism. The opposition must sort out what issues are worth criticizing or not," he said.

Regarding the importance of the opposition’s role in government, he explained that the opposition is important because it functions as a counterweight and controls the power to avoid corrupt actions.

"In any country with an authoritarian system, for example, there must be an extraordinary phenomenon of corruption because there is no one controlling," he said.