Golkar Party leaders split as internal rift deepens
Golkar Party leaders split as internal rift deepens
Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
An internal rift within the Golkar Party has led several party
leaders to split ranks from the party's pro-President Megawati
Soekarnoputri Nationhood Coalition to instead back presidential
candidate Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
On Tuesday, several of the party's defiant executives,
including Marzuki Darusman, Fahmi Idris and Burhanuddin
Napitupulu, declared the establishment of the Golkar Reform
Forum, sending a clear message they would support Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono and his running mate Jusuf Kalla, who is a Golkar
member.
The Nationhood Coalition is a grouping aimed to help Megawati
Soekarnoputri and running mate Hasyim Muzadi win the Sept. 20
election runoff. Golkar chairman Akbar Tandjung leads the
coalition, which brings together four major parties that would
hold a clear majority in the next House of Representatives,
"Now that we (Golkar members) have established the forum, I
hope all the party members feel free to discuss anything that
happens inside the party, including policies that are considered
to depart from the party's aspirations," Fahmi said, referring to
Akbar's decision to involve Golkar in the coalition.
Akbar has said the policy bound all Golkar members down to the
grassroots to support Megawati. Golkar secretary-general Budi
Harsono said the party had reprimanded eight executives who
opposed the party's policy of supporting the Megawati-Hasyim
ticket.
Tuesday's declaration came 24 hours after the Golkar
dissidents, along with lawmakers from Megawati's Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the National Awakening
Party (PAN) and the United Development Party, met with Kalla to
call for reform and a clean election runoff.
Golkar, which garnered the most votes in the April 5
legislative election, nominated former Indonesian Military chief
Gen. (ret) Wiranto in the first-round of the presidential
election on July 5, but he was eliminated after coming in third
behind Susilo and Megawati.
Meanwhile, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) that recently
tendered its support to the Susilo-Kalla pairing, has also faced
opposition from its members. On Tuesday, hundreds of PKS
supporters rallied in front of the party's headquarters in South
Jakarta, urging the party executives to pull back their support
for Susilo, who they said opportunistically manipulated religious
issues.
Separately, the National Awakening Party (PKB) began its two-
day national meeting on Tuesday to decide its political stance
ahead of the election runoff.
The meeting was attended by 40 members of the party's central
board, including its chief patron Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid,
and 32 representatives of its provincial boards.
PKB leader Alwi Shihab said most of the party's
representatives had tendered support for the Susilo-Kalla
pairing, but "some of them have also asked the party to stay
neutral."