Jakarta – Fresh from his election as the new leader of the Golkar Party, Mr Jusuf Kalla has strongly signalled that Golkar is out of the Nationhood Coalition of opposition parties, saying there is no such permanent bloc in the country's Parliament.
"There is no such thing as a permanent coalition in the House which is now very dynamic and everything must be in accordance with prevailing issues," Mr Jusuf, who is also Indonesia's Vice-President, said. Past decisions are always subject to change, especially in politics. "Golkar will remain a critical partner of the government," Mr Jusuf said.
Earlier this year, Golkar and Mrs Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party – Struggle (PDI-P) formed the coalition to support the former president's re-election bid.
But since Mrs Megawati's loss in the September president elections, the writing has been on the wall for the opposition coalition. On Sunday, Mr Jusuf changed Golkar's position around from that of being the main opposition force to that of a main political backer for the new government. The next day, PDI-P's deputy secretary-general Pramono Anung said that the coalition was never intended to be permanent.
An analyst with the Indonesian Institute of Political Sciences, Dr Ikrar Nusa Bhakti, said that with Golkar supporting the government, the party would demand Dr Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's attention far more than other parties in the President's People's Coalition. Medium-sized parties could side with any party that acted in their interest, including Dr Yudhoyono's Democratic Party, said Dr Ikrar.
The People's Coalition includes the Democratic Party, the Prosperous Justice Party, the Crescent Star Party, the Indonesian Justice and Unity Party, the United Development Party and the National Mandate Party. "History has shown that even parties who support the President can be more critical than others," Dr Ikrar said.
Dr Daniel Sparinga from Airlangga University in Surabaya, East Java, said that medium-sized parties could oppose Dr Yudhoyono if his deputy was too focused on accommodating Golkar's interests. "The victory may be at the expense of Dr Yudhoyono position. It may be beneficial in the short term, but in the long term, Jusuf could threaten and undermine Dr Yudhoyono's position as President because he seems to have a higher bargaining position," he said.
Dr Daniel said having Golkar on their side, Dr Yudhoyono and Jusuf's positions would be more secure with government legislation being passed without much resistance. "However, it would be far better to have a critical parliament. We can't let their check-and-balance function stall with Golkar coming in. It's also important to assure that the critical people in Golkar will still be critical," he added.
In the case of the PDI-P, both Dr Ikrar and Dr Daniel believed this was the perfect time for the party to consolidate and improve its image in order to compete in the next general election. "They shouldn't prioritise forming a new alliance with other parties. The legislature is quite critical and flexible now, depending on the issues. The (PDI-P) must show they can be more intelligent at scrutinising and more critical than Golkar is," Dr Ikrar said.