Party leader says Golkar won't explore idea of coalition
Kurniawan Hari and Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
While the General Elections Commission (KPU) accelerated the issuance of tallies on Tuesday evening, Golkar, which is so far on the right track to reaching its target to get more votes in the legislative election, compared to 23.74 percent of the votes in the 1999 general election, sent out the strong message that its chairman Akbar Tandjung would run in the July 5 direct presidential election.
"I assure you that Golkar members would prefer to have their own presidential candidate," he said after meeting with the president of the International Crisis Group (ICG), Gareth Evans, here on Wednesday.
Akbar Tandjung, who is Golkar Party leader and speaker of the House of Representatives (DPR), confidently insisted that his party would not explore the possibility of a coalition with another political party.
"We don't want to talk about coalitions. We are focusing on vote-counting," said Akbar, who also served two terms as a minister under former president Soeharto, indicating that Golkar was ready to pick a vice presidential candidate from another political party.
"The chance is there. Of course, we will see who the most feasible partner is," he said.
Akbar took over Golkar's leadership from Soeharto, shortly after the former president fell from power in May 1998. He led the party in the 1999 general election -- reaching second position after Megawati Soekarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) -- and amid high anti-Golkar sentiment among the people.
Last year, Golkar picked seven possible presidential candidates. Aside from Akbar, Soeharto's former adjutant Gen. (ret) Wiranto, Soeharto's son-in-law Lt. Gen. (ret) Prabowo Subianto, Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla, business tycoon Aburizal Bakrie, media entrepreneur Surya Paloh and Yogyakarta Sultan Hamengkubuwono X were suggested.
The sultan has, however, decided to quit the Golkar convention slated for April 19 to April 20 at which the party will elect its final candidates.
When the Supreme Court acquitted Akbar of corruption charges in February, many feared that his rivals had lost virtually any chance of presidential candidacy.
Separately, Golkar deputy secretary-general, Bomer Pasaribu, said that Akbar had the biggest chance as he was considered a hero for defending Golkar, as it faced the challenges of the past four years.
Earlier, political analysts observed that Akbar would face tough competition from Wiranto.
J.B. Kristiadi of the Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS) and Indria Samego of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) said that Akbar and Wiranto were the strongest of the six Golkar presidential hopefuls and both had deployed their own strategies to win the convention.
"Besides winning political support from among the military, Wiranto has been proactive in lobbying regions, which are the strongholds of Golkar in Java and the country's eastern regions, during the campaign season," he said.
According to Kristiady, besides approaching Muslim clerics and informal leaders, Wiranto has also allegedly played on Javanese sentiment to win support from Golkar's provincial and regental chapters in Java and Bali -- where the majority of the 148 million eligible voters nationwide live.