Is political rivalry behind the campaign against Golkar?

Is political rivalry behind the campaign against Golkar?

There have been many demands to dissolve Golkar lately, on
which The Jakarta Post talked to lecturer in politics Bambang
Cipto of the Yogyakarta Muhammadiyah University.

Question: Are demands to dissolve Golkar still relevant given
that Golkar is a legal party which won the second most votes in
the last election?

Answer: This largely depends on the angle from which we look
at the problem. The main goal of Nahdlatul Ulama (Islamic
organization, earlier chaired by President Abdurrahman Wahid) or
the National Awakening Party (PKB, founded by Gus Dur) and the
Democratic People's Party (PRD, reportedly supportive of Gus Dur)
in making such demands is actually not the dissolving of Golkar.

Demands are instead aimed at lowering Golkar's legitimacy.
They hope this will give (their respective parties) more votes in
the next election. The East Java rallies aimed to raise similar
demands in other regions and therefore keep away voters' sympathy
from Golkar.

Wouldn't that be counterproductive for both PKB and PRD?

I don't think so, especially from PRD's point of view. PRD is
only a small party, almost without supporters. Therefore, people
will not hear whatever move they make unless they use popular
demands such as reminding people of Golkar's "black" reputation.

NU or PKB seem to have the same goal of widening their
constituency from mainly East Java to other parts of the country.

By cornering Golkar, they hope to get more sympathy from the
voters, although the East Java incidents (involving vandalism of
Golkar offices and Muhammadiyah organization schools) has in fact
reduced their good image ...

In today's era, I think it's valid for them to conduct such
moves (appealing to voters of rival parties). It now depends on
how Golkar smartly faces the move. Golkar has so far been
successful. It even gained advantage from the incident. The more
it is cornered the more sympathy it will get.

Whether it is counterproductive in the sense that it will
affect votes in the next election, I'd rather say it wouldn't,
because PKB's constituents are mostly irrational voters.

The impact would be different if voters of the National
Mandate Party (PAN), for example, were involved.

The move alone (maneuvers against Golkar) will not reduce
Golkar's potential votes either. If it is Golkar's volatile
voters that they targeted, this is not effective either because
the next election will only be held in another three years.

The move, too, won't give PKB more votes.

The main goal for both PKB and PRD (in trying to lower
Golkar's legitimacy) is to gain more popularity. It is just part
of political rhetorics that will last only a couple of weeks.

Gus Dur's supporters need to do so to escape from a cornered
and difficult situation (over the Bulog and Brunei financial
scandals faced by the President). They need a scapegoat to
express their disappointment over the case ...

Golkar contributed the most votes for Gus Dur. Attacking
Golkar, however, will only lessen Gus Dur's support. Your
comment?

Let me put it this way. Gus Dur knows well that many of
Golkar's elite are facing cases of corruption, collusion and
nepotism including the bank liquidity cases and the alleged
involvement of Golkar's Chairman Akbar Tandjung in another
financial scam, Tapperum.

So if cornered they (the Golkar elite) will just act
defensive.

What could Golkar could do to cleanse itself from its past
mistakes?

Their mistake is too big ... But Golkar was under TNI's
control. It served only as a tool of Soeharto's regime. And
unless we have a President who wins majority votes in the
presidential election, cleansing TNI's sin will be a very
difficult task to do. (Sri Wahyuni)