Golkar Split on Survey for Indonesian Presidential Candidate

The Golkar Party’s decision to rely on surveys in the selection of chairman Aburizal Bakrie as its 2014 presidential candidate is facing resistance, with some regional chapters threatening to call an extraordinary congress.

Muntasir Hamid, the chairman of Golkar’s Social Network Forum of Regional Chapter Boards, said the group would push for the congress if the party continued insisting on Aburizal as its candidate, a choice that he says lacks unanimous support.

“If Ical is forced to become the candidate for the presidency, then an extraordinary congress can be called,” Muntasir said, referring to Aburizal by his nickname.

He criticized Aburizal for leading Golkar like “a kingdom” or “a company” and said about 400 regional Golkar chapters were ready to present their stance on the matter in Jakarta.

Nurul Arifin, Golkar’s deputy secretary general, dismissed the matter, saying it was “normal that there are differences of opinion or dissatisfaction.”

“In principle, the process is not yet 100 percent completed,” she said, adding that Golkar would still push to hold the national party leadership meeting in July instead of October, as is customary, to decide on the candidate for 2014.

“I think the chairman will clarify various matters linked to the confusion, the revitalization of the executive boards and others,” Nurul said. “We’ll synchronize our views, and if we still can’t agree, it will be discussed in the plenary.”

Golkar deputy chairman Agung Laksono said the party no longer wanted to use the former system of selecting a candidate with a party convention, which he said was “full of money politics.”

“We’re not using that [system] anymore. Now we’ll use a survey system, and the results will be formalized at the national party leadership’s meeting,” Agung said, explaining that the most popular cadre in the surveys would become the candidate.

Another deputy chairman, Fadel Muhammad, recently said Aburizal was inviting senior party cadres to discuss the leadership meeting on Friday, but many of those invited said they had not yet received an invitation.

Political expert Ikrar Nusa Bhakti from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) warned that if the leadership meeting only served to formalize Aburizal’s candidacy, it would negatively affect the party and the party’s potential voters.

“Ical can be seen as an ambitious figure who ignores the aspirations of other Golkar elements,” he said.