Golkar's next steps

Golkar's next steps

On Saturday the government party, Golkar, elected Akbar
Tandjung, who is President B. J. Habibie's powerful
minister/state secretary, as its new chairman. He replaces
Harmoko, who led the party during the last five years when it
served little purpose beyond being former president Soeharto's
general election machinery.

Recognizing that Golkar is still a powerful political force
within the legislature and the administration, the election
elevates Akbar, an experienced politician, into one of the
nation's foremost political figures. According to our political
tradition of the last three decades, he should become speaker of
both the People's Consultative Assembly and the House of
Representatives.

If Golkar can survive the looming political turmoil of the
next 10 months it is not beyond the realms of possibility that
Akbar will be the next occupant of Habibie's seat. But this
depends on whether Golkar was really reborn as a modern political
entity at the congress, cleaning itself of its hereditary sins
and making itself capable of attracting popular support.

Last week's congress did not show that the party has prepared
itself to become a viable election winner. It failed to prove
that it has completely shed its the old mentality. The
chairmanship election was indeed more democratic than the
previous ones but the nature of politicking and exaggerated fuss
about money politics showed that Golkar has not repented.

It seems to have forgotten that it is still too early for the
people to forget how the party -- which until yesterday only
called itself a functional group but in optima forma has been
nothing but a political entity -- was ruthless in turning all
democratic values upside down, and how widespread was its
tolerance of corruption, nepotism, and crony capitalism. Golkar's
most fatal thoughtlessness was reelecting Soeharto in March.

Although Golkar has never been an independent political
grouping because no national policies have ever been decided at
its headquarters and everything depended on Soeharto, who pulled
the strings from behind the screen, the people believe it has to
take its share of the blame for the present calamitous national
crisis.

The organization has apparently looked down on the importance
of a healthy public image because it seems to believe that its
very survival can be guaranteed at the General Session of the
People's Consultative Assembly, at the end of the year, which it
dominates. This way of thinking is reminiscent of the way Habibie
appointed his hand-picked members of the Assembly at the end of
June to replace the old ones.

The sorrowful message from this maneuver is that it will take
years for the present government to implement total reform,
meaning it will never do it.

Such strategy sounds tactful. But Golkar has to remember that
next year no sane person in this country will tolerate any rigged
elections -- as Soeharto's regime held since 1971. If Golkar
still hopes to play the same game again it will be squashed by
time.

Akbar, who has promised to introduce change within the party,
will surely find that the path to democracy is not as smooth as
he imagined.