JAKARTA. President-elect Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and vice president-elect Jusuf Kalla delivered a victory speech on a traditional phinisi boat of the Bugis-Makassar community at Sunda Kelapa Port in North Jakarta on Tuesday evening.

In his speech, Jokowi said he had high regard for his rival candidate pair Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa, whom he described as “our best friends during the competition to decide the leader for the next five years”.

Jokowi said his victory belonged to all Indonesians, stressing that political differences in the past few months had divided families, neighbors and friends, even though such plurality was essential in a democracy.

“With our humility, we call on all Indonesians to return to being a united nation. Forget number one or two, we should return to number three [of Pancasila], the unity of Indonesia,” he said as broadcast live on TV.

“We have to be responsible again for our selves, especially for our children and grand children; politics is about happiness, wisdom and freedom,” he said.

Jokowi said the voluntarism during the campaign period had created new optimism for the nation, in order to build again the spirit of ‘gotong royong’ (mutual cooperation).

He said that spirit was a foundation for the nation to become “politically sovereign, economically self-sufficient and culturally strong in character”.  

“It is time for all farmers, fishermen, traders, employees and workers to return to their jobs and consider ourselves as the nation of Great Indonesia. A three-finger salute for the unity of Indonesia,” he said.  

On Tuesday evening, the General Elections Commission (KPU) named the Jokowi-Kalla pair as president-elect and vice president-elect after the official announcement of the final vote tally of the 2014 election. (gda)

Editor: Barratut Taqiyyah Rafie