Golkar upbeat hard work will pay off on election day

Golkar upbeat hard work will pay off on election day

By Dwi Atmanta

JAKARTA (JP): Golkar is confident of another landslide victory
in the May 29 general election, given the amount of work it has
put into consolidating grassroots support these past three years.

Under chairman Harmoko, Golkar has recruited an army of 12
millions cadres in villages and kampongs across the country.
Their job is to amass votes in their respective neighborhoods.

Come the election campaign -- slated for April 27 to May 23 --
these cadres will be making door-to-door visits to canvass
support for Golkar.

An army of Golkar functionaries in the meantime will be
campaigning among strategic groups -- such as farmers,
businesspeople, youths, intellectuals and mass media workers.

Cadres and sympathizers will have the chance to meet top
Golkar leaders at the mass gatherings, which will not be rallies
however because they are forbidden.

These gatherings will be given massive media exposure to
enhance Golkar's image and curry public favor.

Information on the preparations for the election has been
flowing ceaselessly from rural villages to Golkar headquarters in
Slipi, West Jakarta, where a blend of government officials,
business heavyweights, intellectuals and hundreds of employees
are gearing up for the months ahead.

"We are facing a war we have to win. That goal needs lengthy
and consistent preparations, otherwise we might let our rivals
land an unexpected blow at the last minute," Rully Chairul Azwar,
head of Golkar's election team said.

The election will pit Golkar against the United Development
Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party, with 425 of 500 seats
in the House of Representatives on offer. The other 75 seats go
to the Armed Forces, whose members do not vote.

Golkar won 68 percent of 97.8 million votes in 1992, giving it
a fifth consecutive landslide majority in the elections held
under President Soeharto.

This year the organization is gunning for 70.02 percent of the
124.7 million people eligible to vote. An estimated 15 million
people will be going to the polls for the first time.

The target means Golkar has to retain its past support and
find 17 million new backers.

Java is receiving special treatment as Golkar is fielding
high-profile figures among its legislative candidates on the
island. President Soeharto's children, Bambang Trihatmodjo and
Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana are representing Jakarta and Central Java
respectively, while the party's chairman Harmoko and secretary-
general Arie Mardjono will fight for West Java and East Java
respectively.

Priority

Rully says Golkar considers the consolidation of neighborhood
communities its top priority in the election.

Each coordinating cadre is responsible for monitoring Golkar
and non-Golkar sympathizers, an activity which has raised
protests from other political groups who have branded it a
political census.

"Our cadres are just making a list, and other political groups
are allowed to do the same. They are only breaking the law if
they intimidate their neighbors into voting for Golkar," Rully
says.

Indonesia adopts the floating mass system which bars all
political groups from campaigning below the regency level.

Coordinating cadres duty is called dasa karya (the 10
mission), which obliges him or her to recruit nine other voters.
They can be immediate family members, other relatives or
neighbors.

"Canvassing can take place in bed, the kitchen or at the
well," Rully said, referring to methods of recruiting voters from
among one's own family and neighborhood.

Rully says that the target of garnering 70.02 percent of the
total votes was not determined from the top but arrived at after
studying reports and pledges from cadres, he said.

"Psychologically, those cadres will prove whether their
reports were reliable or not on election day," says Rully, a
House member who tops the legislative candidates list in
Bengkulu.

Golkar's support in any village always serves as an indicator
of the success of a village chief. It is accepted that a village
chief can expect a second eight-year term if Golkar increases its
vote in his or her area.

Golkar is also counting on the support of the Civil Servants
Corps and the Armed Forces, the organization's two founding
pillars, and their families.

The former comprises six million employees who work in the
bureaucracy and state-owned companies. Its leadership has decided
that all civil servants and their families are expected to
channel their political aspirations through Golkar.

Such synergy enables Golkar to enjoy the use of bureaucracy
facilities, but Rully denies that Golkar has grown into a non
self-reliant political group.

"Self-reliance does not suggest Golkar must break its historic
relationships with the civil servants and the Armed Forces. A
self-reliant political group is one that manages to implement its
programs.

He said that Golkar was poised to retain its huge majority to
make sure that it has the dominant say in the country's policy-
making process.

"We have a mission which needs implementing. The bigger our
share of the vote, the smoother the process will be in achieving
our goals," Rully says.

The majority landslide is not the reason why the two minor
parties have been left out in the cabinet, according to Rully.

"The President has the prerogative to choose his assistants.
If he happened to pick his assistants from Golkar, maybe that was
because he had the full cooperation of Golkar members," he says.

President Soeharto, who took office in 1967, chairs Golkar's
powerful board of patrons. Non-Golkar figures were last in the
cabinet in the 1972 to 1978 term.