Golkar figures launch new political party
JAKARTA (JP): A group of disenchanted senior Golkar figures are to complete their separation from the dominant grouping on Friday morning by officially launching the Justice and Unity Party (PKP).
"Our new party will meet all the requirements to contest the June 7 general election and will go all out to win it," vowed Hayono Isman, a leading figure in the breakaway party, adding that he expected a number of noted Golkar figures to defect to the new party.
Gen. (ret.) Edi Sudradjat, a former minister of defense and security and former member of Golkar's board of patrons, will launch the new party at the Manggala Wanabakti building in Central Jakarta on Friday morning. Edi will serve as party chairman.
The breakaway is yet another severe blow to Golkar and comes hard on the heels of revelations that two of its strongest allies -- the 4.1 million-strong Corps of Civil Servants (Korpri) and the Association of Retired Military Officers (Pepabri) -- plan to distance themselves from the organization. Although Pepabri has frequently changed its stance over Golkar, speculation has grown recently that the association does indeed intend to shift its allegiance.
Hayono will become the new party's secretary-general. The party's deputy chairpersons will include Sutradara Ginting, who is currently a Golkar legislator, former Army deputy chief Lt. Gen. (ret) Soerjadi, the chairman of Association of Indonesian Footwear (API) Anton Supit and scholar Meutia Hatta, who is the eldest daughter of Indonesia's first vice president M. Hatta.
Hayono, who is also deputy chairman of Kosgoro -- an association of businessmen affiliated to Golkar -- said the new party registered with the Ministry of Home Affairs on Jan. 8.
The party is now working to set up chapters in all of the country's 27 provinces and branch offices in more than 100 regencies.
"Our short-term objective is to install executive boards in all provinces and regencies," Hayono said.
Separately, political scientist Mochtar Pabottingi agreed the new party and the impending exodus of cadres would come as a "major blow" to Golkar. He suspected the exodus would encourage the civil servants corps and Pepabri to officially sever their ties with Golkar.
"Golkar is digging its own grave," he said.
Mochtar called on Golkar to dissolve and then reform into a new party. That way, he said, the party would cease to be associated with the corrupt and authoritarian government headed by former president Soeharto.
"It will be useless for Golkar to try to go on because all of its noted figures are leaving one by one," he said.
He said that Golkar's representation in the House of Representatives would be drastically reduced after the June general election.
Despite repeated electoral victories in the past, he said that Golkar was in fact a fragile and weak organization because its existence depended on the political interests of individuals in Soeharto's New Order government.
Separately, the popular faction of the splintered Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) blamed Golkar for the stalemate in the deliberation, accusing it of "committing political crimes" and of "attempting to manipulate the general election."
Jacob Tobing, deputy chairman of PDI center for planning and development, said Golkar's insistence in the deliberation was evidence that it was planning to manipulate the election.
Meanwhile, Mochtar welcomed the multi-party system proposed for the June election. "It will create a legitimate and democratic government because it will be difficult for any single party contesting the election to secure a majority victory," he said. (rms)