Golkar Party gives Akbar Tandjung second chance

Golkar Party gives Akbar Tandjung second chance

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Golkar will give its chairman Akbar Tandjung a chance to contest
the national convention, which will elect the party's
presidential candidate to run in the 2004 election.

The executive chairman of the national convention organizing
committee, Slamet Effendy Yusuf, said on Friday that Akbar can be
nominated by either members of Golkar or mass organizations
affiliated with the party for the national convention slated for
November.

Akbar, who is also the House of Representatives (DPR) speaker,
was sentenced to three years after he was convicted in a Rp 40
billion (US$4.81 million) graft case that took place when he was
state secretary under President B.J. Habibie in 1999. Akbar
remains free, pending his appeal to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court expects to hear the appeal in August, when
Golkar begins the nomination of presidential hopefuls by the
party's provincial chapters.

"It depends on whether Akbar is nominated (by the
organization) or not," Slamet said after a discussion here on
Friday.

Separately, Akbar said on Friday that he was undecided whether
he would run for president. He said that as party chairman he
would focus on how to boost Golkar's votes in the 2004 election.

Slamet said Akbar would not enjoy any privileges in the
convention, despite being the party chairman.

A group of at least 500 people or a mass organization are
allowed to propose presidential candidates to Golkar's regental
branch when the convention process starts up in August. Each
branch is allowed to select five candidates, who will compete in
the convention at a provincial level.

Each provincial chapter will come with five candidates to the
national convention in Jakarta in November.

Slamet said the selection process in regental branches was
part of Golkar's effort to search for "the best person in the
nation" for the presidential race.

Citing an example, Slamet said that a recent meeting of branch
offices in Surakarta, Central Java, selected 17 candidates, three
of whom were not Golkar members.

For that same reason, Slamet said the presidential candidates
would not be restricted to only Golkar figures.

Based on the Constitution, a presidential hopeful has to be
nominated by a political party or a coalition of parties, which
effectively closes the door on independent candidates.

Although some Golkar leaders have mentioned several possible
presidential candidates, Slamet said that until Friday the
convention committee had not officially received any names.

National figures touted as candidates during the convention
include Muslim scholar Nurcholish Madjid, Coordinating Minister
for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono,
Minister of Transportation Agum Gumelar, Yogyakarta Sultan
Hamengkubuwono X, Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare
Jusuf Kalla, media tycoon Surya Paloh, former Indonesian Military
chief Gen. (ret) Wiranto and former chief of Army Strategic
Reserves Command (Kostrad) Prabowo Subianto.

"The status of these candidates is the same as the candidates
that have not yet been mentioned," Slamet added.

Political analyst turned politician Andi Mallarangeng hailed
Golkar's convention initiative, but said that the agenda should
not pay lip service just to boost the party's image.