Akbar shows who's the boss<\/p>\n
Yogita Tahilramani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Surviving dirty politics is one thing. Surviving party
\npolitics is quite another.<\/p>\n
Golkar Chairman Akbar Tandjung showed who the boss was on
\nThursday evening when he, despite having been declared a suspect
\nin a multi-billion financial scandal involving the State
\nLogistics Agency (Bulog), suspended 19 party leaders for playing
\nlittle or no active role in what was the political bandwagon of
\nformer president Soeharto for more than three decades.<\/p>\n
Deputy secretary-general Muchyar Yara, one of those suspended,
\nsaid that claims made by Akbar that they played little or no
\nactive role in the party were \"total lies\".<\/p>\n
A confidante of People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Deputy
\nSpeaker Ginandjar Kartasasmita, Muchyar said he believed he had
\nbeen suspended because he had demanded Akbar's removal as party
\nchief many times.<\/p>\n
Following worsening tension between Ginandjar and Akbar,
\nMuchyar's demands to remove Akbar from the party chief's seat
\ngrew louder when the Attorney General's Office declared Akbar,
\nwho is also the House of Representatives speaker, a suspect in a
\ngraft scandal.<\/p>\n
\"As long as Akbar is still the party chairman, the scandal
\nwill be linked to Golkar. It is not right for a graft suspect to
\nbe Golkar party chief,\" Muchyar, who is also a noted lawyer, told
\nThe Jakarta Post on Friday.<\/p>\n
Even as he vowed to put a stop to Akbar's efforts to get him
\ndismissed from the party, he refused to comment on his own
\nreported personal ambition to fill the post of Golkar party chief
\nwith Ginandjar's blessing, if ever it is vacated by Akbar over
\nthe scandal.<\/p>\n
Tensions between Golkar patron Ginandjar and Akbar sprouted
\nfollowing Ginandjar's disappointment with Akbar for doing nothing
\nwhen Marzuki Darusman, then attorney general in former president
\nAbdurrahman Wahid's cabinet, dragged Ginandjar to court over a
\ngraft scandal.<\/p>\n
Akbar also reportedly refused Ginandjar's request to dismiss
\nGolkar member Marzuki Darusman from the party's executive board.<\/p>\n
Ginandjar responded by allegedly forcing some of the party's
\nmain chapters, including West Java, to push for Akbar's removal
\nas party chief and lobby executives of other party factions to
\nback his move.<\/p>\n
A number of Golkar camps, which had initially been
\nirreconcilable, finally seemed to be working toward a goal: To
\nget Akbar to be perceived as the sole person responsible for the
\nBulog graft scandal, and therefore remove this criminal
\nresponsibility from the shoulders of the party.<\/p>\n
This was reportedly aimed more at convincing Golkar party
\nmembers to topple Akbar from the chairman's seat, than for the
\ngood of the party.<\/p>\n
Another staunch critic and senior party member, Achmad Arnold
\nBaramuli, is reportedly among those joining hands with Ginandjar
\nover the single mission of dethroning Akbar.<\/p>\n
Golkar deputy chairman Agung Laksono earlier told reporters at
\nthe party's leadership congress here that the possibility of
\nsuspending or dismissing Baramuli \"remained wide open\".<\/p>\n
Baramuli, who did not turn up for the three-day meeting in
\nJakarta that opened on Wednesday, is a senior member who now
\nserves as one of the party's patrons.<\/p>\n
The bitter relationship between Baramuli and Akbar surfaced
\nafter Golkar failed to get B.J. Habibie elected president during
\nthe 1999 elections. Baramuli gained momentum to oust Akbar after
\nthe latter was implicated in the graft scandal.<\/p>\n
He leads the Iramasuka camp comprising the Irian Jaya, Maluku,
\nSulawesi and Kalimantan chapters of Golkar. Within the Iramasuka
\ncamp there are party officials who still support Akbar, including
\nMinister of People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla.<\/p>\n
Marzuki Darusman reportedly has his own staunch followers of
\nyoung \"reformers\".<\/p>\n
The camps' executives indicate that the camps are competing to
\nget their members to fill the post of Golkar party chief, if ever
\nvacated by Akbar over the Bulog scandal.<\/p>\n
Ginandjar's camp is reportedly throwing its weight behind
\nMuchyar, the Iramasuka camp has strong support from eastern
\nIndonesia's Golkar branches, while Marzuki himself is reportedly
\nalso vying for this much sought-after post.<\/p>\n
Despite the graft scandal, Akbar still rules as Golkar's
\nultimate survivor and the party's boss. It is, however, still not
\nknown who will eventually end up filling Akbar's shoes in the
\nlong run.<\/p>",
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