Susilo sees Wiranto as stiffest contender for president

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Wiranto's upset win over Akbar Tandjung in the Golkar Party convention has left presidential election contenders scrambling for changes in their strategy, with Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono no exception.

Susilo, cofounder of the Democratic Party, is intensifying efforts to build a coalition with at least five political parties, his campaign manager Suratto Siswodihardjo, a retired Air Force first marshal, said on Thursday.

Suratto said two of the five parties -- the Crescent Star Party (PBB) led by Yusril Ihza Mahendra and the Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (PKPI) led by former defense minister Gen. (ret) Eddy Sudrajat -- had agreed to support Susilo's presidential bid.

Susilo is still courting the National Awakening Party (PKB), the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and a group of loyalists of Jusuf Kalla, who is Susilo's running mate from Golkar.

Suratto also said Susilo was mounting efforts to convince the Democratic Party's grassroot supporters of the move.

"Wiranto's victory in the Golkar convention came as a surprise to us. We are learning from it and are now changing our strategy by building a coalition with other parties," Suratto said.

Susilo, Suratto said, considers Wiranto his strongest contender. The two presidential aspirants have military backgrounds, with Wiranto once the head of the Indonesian Military (TNI).

"Last night Pak Susilo urged us to fight it out. Wiranto should be considered as the strongest contender and his victory in the Golkar convention may affect our party in winning both support from TNI families and relatives and in collecting campaign funds," Suratto said.

Wiranto won Golkar's mandate to contest the presidential election on July 5 after gaining 315 votes against Akbar's 227 on Wednesday morning.

Suratto said his party opened the door for a dialog with Akbar through Kalla.

"Well, it is Kalla, not Wiranto, who has grown up as a Golkar cadre," Suratto said.

Without much publicity, Susilo has privately met a number of political figures over the past few days, but Suratto was reluctant to disclose the results of the meetings.

The latest vote counting by the General Elections Commission (KPU) showed that the Democratic Party was fifth with around 7 million votes, followed by PKS with around 6.6 million.

PBB and PKPI were sixth and eighth respectively but had not met the electoral threshold of 5 percent of the vote to contest the presidential election.

Suratto said his party would continue to maintain its link with PKB, even though PKB's chief patron Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid had apparently sought his own running mate.

When Susilo resigned as coordinating minister for political and security affairs on March 9, PKB executives were the first to open dialog with him and offer a coalition between the two parties in the presidential election.

But as soon as the Democratic Party surpassed the electoral threshold, Susilo decided to run for president and named Kalla his running mate and the planned coalition with PKB broke down.

Kalla later on resigned as the coordinating minister for people's welfare.

Suratto said, however, Susilo and Gus Dur have maintained communication.

"PKB executives offered Susilo the opportunity to be Gus Dur's running mate, telling him he would still hold power anyway due to Gus Dur's health problems. Pak Susilo, however, rejected the proposal on the grounds that Indonesia adopts the presidential not parliamentarian system," Suratto added.