Golkar's next challenge

Golkar's next challenge

After Golkar's emotion-filled convention on Tuesday, it seems
that the heavy downpour in Jakarta the next afternoon came as a
shower from heaven to douse the heat left by the race involving
the party's five presidential hopefuls.

The eight-hour convention in Central Jakarta that ended well
past midnight on Tuesday yielded (ret) Gen. Wiranto, former
commander of the Indonesian Military (TNI), as the party's
presidential candidate.

Tuesday's assemblage marked the culmination of a 14-month
process initiated by party leader Akbar Tandjung, who
conceptualized the party convention as a vehicle for finding the
best possible leader for the nation by accepting candidates from
both inside and outside the party.

The outcome, however, was a bitter defeat for the man who is
widely considered to be one of the nation's most talented
politicians. As it turned out, the other candidates proved more
difficult to beat than the charges of corruption that had been
leveled against him for years.

When Akbar was freed from corruption charges in February, his
chances of victory at the convention appeared wide open. But at
the crucial moment, a little past midnight Tuesday, his fate was
sealed. It was an outright victory for Wiranto, who had
crisscrossed the archipelago in the past six months to seek
support.

Nevertheless, the battle was interesting to watch. On the
field were five candidates, including businessman Aburizal Bakrie
and media mogul Surya Paloh. Another candidate was Prabowo
Subianto, a former Army general who is a son-in-law of president
Soeharto. Bakrie caught people by surprise by snatching 118 out
of 547 votes in the first round, which put him in the third slot,
but it was not enough to pull him through to the second round
that eventually pitted Akbar against Wiranto.

And whatever the eventual outcome, Tuesday night's convention
was a Golkar showcase. The political machine that Soeharto set up
and the dissolution of which was demanded by the reformist
movement when its chief patron fell from grace in 1998, has held
an unprecedented national political event.

The sight of two presidential hopefuls sitting side by side
accompanied by their spouses right after the vote count was
unparalleled indeed in this country. Only several hours earlier,
the two were involved in a battle of wits together with the other
Golkar presidential candidates. Like it or not, Golkar should be
commended for holding this high-level political lesson.

For 30 years under Soeharto, Golkar made a show of how to win
a battle without really fighting -- thanks to the repressive
nature of the Soeharto government. Now it seems it is well into
the process of undergoing total transformation by teaching the
people how to accept defeat with grace.

Accepting defeat is a difficult pill for the nation's leaders
to swallow. For 32 years under Soeharto, differing in opinion was
more or less taboo. The maxim was: anyone who differs in opinion
is an enemy. Hence, many are inclined to see in Golkar's
convention a stride forward toward the political maturity of the
party's leaders as well as its constituents. Only time will tell
if this is true.

The downside is that the two strongest contenders in the
convention are tainted candidates. Wiranto has been indicted for
human rights abuses in East Timor and Akbar has yet to completely
distance himself from the recent corruption charges.

For some, the convention also had an ironic twist. Initially
designed to reverse Soeharto's top-down leader recruitment
system, it ended up yielding another military leader, the open
and democratic manner in which it was conducted notwithstanding.

This is especially interesting, since another current popular
leader and presidential aspirant, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of the
Democratic Party, is also a retired military general. Although
retired military generals are civilians in legal terms, the call
of the now defunct reformist movement for a civilian government
has been all but inaudible.

As Wiranto relishes his newly won victory, further battle
fields await him. With 315 votes against Akbar's 227, he seemed
to have secured most of the votes from the 32 provincial
executive boards of the party, each having three voting blocks.
If this is true, Golkar's grass roots are saying that they need
the strongest contender to run against Susilo of the Democratic
Party and his running mate Jusuf Kalla. Golkar seems to be aware
that the Susilo/Kalla pair is currently the front runner in the
polls and is accepted by the market as well. Therefore, Golkar is
looking for a figure to match Susilo. And the choice is Wiranto.

One thing though has remained unchanged after the April 5
legislative election, which ended with a loud and clear message:
the people want change. If mother nature managed to douse the
emotional heat of the convention on Wednesday, will the
convention be able to provide an answer to people's demands?