Prominent Golkar members have blamed party chairman Airlangga Hartarto as the party suffers a dip in popularity and internal bickering. PHOTO: REUTERS
JAKARTA: Cracks have emerged in Golkar, Indonesia’s oldest political party, as it suffers a dip in popularity and internal bickering on which presidential candidate to support ahead of February’s general election.
Prominent Golkar members, such as ministers Luhut Pandjaitan and Bahlil Lahadalia who are vying to take over the chairman’s post, have sounded the alarm over the fall in popularity from 12 per cent of public support four years ago to around 6 per cent currently.
They have put the blame on chairman Airlangga Hartarto.
Golkar won around 12 per cent of the votes in the 2019 election, securing 85 seats to make it the second-largest party in Parliament behind the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), which has 128 seats. The other seven parties in Parliament share the remaining 362 seats.
Political observers suspect that President Joko Widodo had a role to play in the feud within Golkar, given Mr Airlangga’s reluctance to support Mr Widodo’s favoured presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, 71.
Further complicating things, Mr Airlangga earlier in July sent senior party representatives to a large rally held by a political party that is fielding former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan, 54 – a staunch political foe of Mr Widodo – as its presidential candidate.
This political gesture in support of Mr Anies was not received well by Mr Widodo’s inner circle.
Indonesia is likely to have a three-way presidential race on Feb 14, with the other contender being Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo, 54, who is backed by the PDI-P.
Support from Golkar for Mr Prabowo, currently Mr Widodo’s Defence Minister, is deemed very important and could determine whether he becomes the next president.
Mr Prabowo is so far backed by only his Gerindra party and the National Awakening party (PKB), which together control 24 per cent of Parliament, just above the 20 per cent threshold needed to field a presidential candidate.
The Straits Times understands there is a risk the PKB may withdraw its support and cause Mr Prabowo to lose his ticket. The PKB has had a track record of pulling out support at the last minute, like in 2018, ahead of the Central Java gubernatorial election when it dropped its backing for PDI-P’s Mr Pranowo.
Observers have accused Mr Widodo of using legal pressure to weaken Mr Airlangga. On Monday, he was summoned by the Attorney-General’s office and was questioned for 12 hours over a year-old corruption case involving the illegal export of cooking oil.
Commenting on the Golkar divisions, political analyst Rocky Gerung argued that Mr Widodo needs to have control over an influential political party to stay relevant after he steps down as president.
Within the ruling PDI-P, Mr Widodo is not a party elite and has not been promised a strategic post when he hands over the presidency.
On the other hand, Golkar is known for having members with top-notch negotiation skills in Parliament.
Its MPs have often managed to position the party as a parliamentary tie-breaker, earning Golkar the status of being one of Indonesia’s most influential political parties.
“Jokowi aims to take over Golkar... In order to prevent Airlangga from fighting back, he needs to be prosecuted in a corruption case so that he would have to step down as Golkar chairman,” Mr Rocky claimed on his YouTube channel.
Mr Widodo dismissed the speculation and attempted to set the record straight on Thursday by saying Golkar’s ongoing feud did not involve his administration.
“That is Golkar’s internal matter. It’s nothing to do with us,” Mr Widodo said, adding that if Mr Luhut or Mr Bahlil wished to become Golkar chairman, that would be their personal matter as well. -- The Straits Times/ANN
