Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini, more popularly known as Risma, may not see out the remainder of her second term running Indonesia’s second largest city, as signs seem to indicate that she will soon be in the running to run the country’s capital.
The most telling of those signs happened today when, out of the blue, Risma bid farewell to the citizens of Surabaya during a family planning campaign at a village in the city.
“I, on behalf of the Surabaya city administration, apologize if there were wrong words spoken. These are the last days, the remainder of the days. Because of that, I, personally, as well as employees from districts, subdistricts and working units, apologize if there were any mistakes made,” Risma said during a speech, as quoted by Metro TV today.
That said, Risma didn’t go into any detail as to why she said farewell and did not confirm whether or not this means she’ll be leaving Surabaya to run for the governorship of Jakarta next year.
Risma has been linked with the top Jakarta job on numerous occasions before, but has repeatedly reiterated her wish to remain in Surabaya, where she was re-elected in 2015 with an overwhelming 86% of the votes.
But, as officials in her political party, PDI-P, pointed out, Risma may not have a choice in the matter and that, ultimately, she can’t refuse her party’s wishes. PDI-P, of course, is led by Chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri, who instructed Joko Widodo to cut short his first term as Jakarta governor to run as president in 2014.
If Risma indeed runs for governor here, then Ahok will face a tough rival in his bid for re-election as Risma has scored high in previous hypothetical polls of who people would vote for to lead Jakarta.
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