It may not seem to be a privileged position, but the House speaker is the key to who could succeed Suharto, writes The Nation's Andreas Harsono.
Winning a landslide election does not guarantee that the chairman of the victorious party will become either the president of the country or the speaker of the parliament. Worse than that, the chairman might end up at a political dead end.
Welcome to Indonesia, where real politics is played behind closed doors and with vague statements instead of with free elections and open public debate.
Journalist-turn-politician Harmoko led the ruling party Golkar to a sweeping victory in the May strictly-controlled election. It captured 74 per cent of the vote which is six per cent higher than the 68 per cent that Golkar received in 1992.
But even his own men said he is not suitable to become the House speaker.
Golkar legislator Manginsara Marcos Lubis highlighted the party's long-concealed internal dispute when Lubis told the media earlier this month that Harmoko is unable to communicate "harmoniously" with President Suharto.
That reason is more than enough to tell the public that a behind-the-scene manoeuvre is in progress to corner Harmoko whose career as the Information Minister since 1983 was abruptly ended in June when Suharto appointed former army chief R Hartono as a replacement.
Indonesian media concluded that Harmoko is not in favour with the 77-year-old president who has been ruling Indonesia like an old-fashioned Javanese sultan since 1965.
Many believe that Lubis is not alone. He is supposed to have strong backup within the party to fight against the party boss. Observers have speculated and swapped rumours that Golkar is divided due to Harmoko's poor performance.
They did not give the credit of Golkar's victory to Harmoko but to the army and the bureaucracy which openly support Suharto's Golkar.
Golkar gets 325 of 425 contested seats of the House of Representatives while the Muslim-based United Development Party and the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party get 89 and 11 seats, respectively. The Indonesian Armed Forces, whose members do not vote, is allotted 75 seats.
Observers and foreign diplomats said some army generals had even hinted that they would like a serviceman to head the House instead of Harmoko, adding that House members are now lobbying each other to nominate their candidates.
"House members will only know who the leading candidates are after Oct 1," said Lt Gen Syarwan Hamid, the most senior member of the military who will join the parliament, as if trying to say that Harmoko is not to get the speaker seat automatically.
According to state protocol, the House speaker is the third most senior official in Indonesia after the president and the vice president.
The House speaker is also to chair the meeting of the 1,000- strong People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) in March next year to elect a president and vice president.
MPR is made up of the 500 House of Representatives members while the 500 other members are representatives of various community groups appointed by Suharto. Critics said the MPR will not allow anyone but Suharto to become president on the grounds that 52.5 per cent of its members are appointed by Suharto himself.
The race is now on for the No 2 position. The candidates include Hartono, technology tsar B J Habibie and current Vice President Try Sutrisno.
Observers said whoever wins the race will be able to help their respective vice presidential candidate get elected.
Syarwan is a military man and is expected to help elect a general to become Indonesia's No 2.
"I'm not in conflict with Harmoko," he said when asked about his change to contest the race, "I must accept reality if Harmoko wins the majority support of House members."
Harmoko, who has lost his popularity since closing down three weeklies in 1994, is a civilian and is expected to build an alliance with Habibie who is widely known to be at loggerheads with the military.
"As an Indonesian citizen, I am ready to carry out any assignment for the interest of the nation," Harmoko said. "It's clear, according to political logic, that the political organisation that wins the general election is expected to hold the leadership position [of the House]," he added.
But it is widely believed that the final say still lies with Suharto who still does not show his highly-needed support to either Harmoko or Syarwan.
Harmoko said, "As a democrat, the president will leave it to the House to deal with," as if trying to say that Suharto should not interfere in the election of the House speaker. Now the race is becoming hotter and hotter.