The Strongest Leader Ever!

The term 'koppig' comes from Dutch language which means stubborn. It was first pinned by Sukarno, Indonesia's first president, to Ali Sadikin, the then Governor of Jakarta, for his tough stance in building the Capital. Ali was a controversial figure who built infrastructure in Jakarta using the money generated from gambling business, but he never step back though his leadership is opposed by many people. Even at that time, Ali often slap his incompetent subordinates using his own hands, and all of the City officials were afraid of him.

And now the term ‘koppig’ rise once again after the recording tape of Freeport Indonesia leaked, where the oil businessman Reza Chalid told the story of how koppig President Jokowi was.

It's been a long time since I know that Jokowi is koppig. His koppig attitude is known to public when he, as the Mayor of Surakarta, rejected the order from the then Governor of Central Java, Bibit Waluyo (Surakarta is one of cities in Central Java Province), where Mr. Bibit gave permit to a developer to build a mall in the City of Surakarta, but Jokowi turned down the proposal because the mall would be built on the land of cultural heritage.

So Bibit tried to rebuke Jokowi, but fail. Jokowi is not like Ahok (current Governor of Jakarta) who like to throw himself into an argument with something he did not like. Jokowi only smiled, not saying anything or refute, but also do not carry out the order.

Then Bibit Waluyo got upset and lost control, he even cursing Jokowi in front of the media and called him a fool. But a ‘koppig man’ always reply to a question without emotion. When journalist asked him about the fool word, he reply with smile, ‘Well, yes, I am a fool, still have much to learn.. It’s okay.’

That’s why choose him as president. A leader must be koppig, otherwise he would be easy to be controlled by others. And I laughed when some people thought that Jokowi is Megawati’s puppet, they must read more!

The koppig-ness of Jokowi also appeared when he suspended the organization of PSSI (Persatuan Sepakbola Seluruh Indonesia/Indonesian Football Associate). He didn’t talk much, only ordered his minister, Imam Nahrawi: Just suspend it, no questions. Of course the PSSI officials shocked: What the fuck?

PSSI had never been treated like this. Back then, they were always strong enough with the threat that ‘government intervention will causes sanctions from FIFA’, an old school threat that is always successful in the previous governments.

However Jokowi, through Nahrawi, did not budge. PSSI had to call FIFA to come to Indonesia to convince Jokowi about the sanctions if PSSI is suspended. Rather than succeed, PSSI was not even allowed to get into the meeting room, the meeting was only between the Government and FIFA. It was a great humiliation for PSSI who thought that they have complete control of Indonesian football, but still they cannot do nothing! Even Agung Gumelar, the ex military general and strong figure behind the PSSI, can only grudging to the media without being able to do anything.

This is what politicians feared the most: The koppig-ness of Jokowi. That's why, in the tape of Freeport scandal, they tried to involve Luhut Panjaitan (Coordinating Minister for Politics, Legal, and Security Affairs), Jusuf Kalla (Vice President), Sudirman Said (Minister of Energy) and so on, because it is not possible to attack Jokowi directly.

Who else has ever face the koppig of Jokowi? Candidate for police chief, Budi Gunawan, he has. And the high-ranking officials of Koalisi Indonesia Hebat (coalition of political parties that supporting the government), nobody dared to oppose Jokowi. Moreover, the officials of Koalisi Merah Putih (coalition of political parties that opposing the government), which had thought that they the control of parliament, now only Gerindra and PKS left (National Mandate Party and Golkar have joined the Government).

Maybe, just maybe, in a meeting, there were officials and high-ranking figure of political parties who trying to impose their will to Jokowi, but he just smiled with an innocent face.. without even saying a word.

And this guy must already know that the smile is the signal that the negotiation has ended, and he may go to the toilet to chew tissue paper and banging his head against the mirror, ‘He smiles.. He smiles! Look at his smile! Argghhhh..!!’

Written by Denny Siregar.