President Joko Widodo should return to his non-confrontational approach toward the House of Representatives regardless of the fact that it is controlled by the opposition camp.

He should tell his ministers to attend consultation meetings with House commissions without further delay to minimize the political disruption on his programs. Dealing with the opposition will be tiring and time consuming.

But avoiding sessions with the House will create a backlash that can end up creating a costly mess and much more disruption to his administration.

He should not fight fire with fire. Instead, he should continue to approach the opposition parties and open communication with them as he has done before. This way, he can monitor closely what the opposition wants, and check their next moves. He should keep his enemies even closer.

After all, he is the president of Indonesia, for those who voted for Prabowo Subianto, not only the president of his supporters.

As long as he makes policies and implements them for the betterment of the people, he should not be afraid of any move from opposition politicians.

Joko’s daring move to raise the subsidized fuel price, for instance, is bold and noble. It turned out to be a savvy policy with minimal political and social costs to his government.

He doesn’t have to worry about a plan by the opposition to use their constitutional right to call the government to explain why he raised the fuel prices. Joko can simply order his ministers to prepare an answer for the House and then move on to other policies.

Rather than wasting time dealing with unnecessary hustle, Joko should just concentrate on applying his policies to make his real boss — the Indonesian people — happy.