Jakarta – Aspiring Golkar Party chairman Yuddy Chrisnandi met with former president Soeharto's eldest daughter, Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, after meeting with her younger brother, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra.

On Friday the legislator of the former ruling party said he had met Siti, known as Mbak Tutut, to ask for her blessing to run for the party's top post. Her late father was the party's powerful chief patron.

He also said he had suggested that the businesswoman and former minister should also run for the Golkar chairmanship.

"I see her as a senior Golkar figure who has integrity and a good track record," Yuddy told a press conference at the House of Representatives.

"Therefore, I also told her I am willing to step down should she decide to run for the top post. I even urged her to nominate herself, but she decided to think about it for a couple of days."

A noted political observer, Arbi Sanit, said Yuddy has been courting the late president Soeharto's children to get much needed funding for his party chairmanship candidacy.

"I believe financial support is Yuddy's main reason [for approaching the Suharto offsprings]. He tried to negotiate with Tommy first. Unfortunately, he does not understand Tommy is not the man to negotiate with, because Tommy still wants to become the Golkar chairman too," said Arbi, a professor at the University of Indonesia,

"After failing to reach Tommy, Yuddy then visited Mbak Tutut. This could cause a conflict of interest within the Cendanas, if his attempt is successful. The family will find it hard to decide whether to support Tommy or Yuddy."

Soeharto's extended family has been dubbed the Cendana clan, after Soeharto's private residence located on Jl. Cendana, in the upmarket residential area of Menteng.

Yuddy denied his approaches to the Cendana clan were financially driven. "I did meet with Tommy, but we did not talk about financing at all. We talked a lot about our vision and views on Golkar's current situation.

"From our conversation, I can tell we share the same vision. So, I told him that we will compete against each other, but whoever loses will support the winner."

Tommy has served his sentence for paying two hit men to murder a Supreme Court judge. Tutut, on the other hand, has no criminal record. She served as a Golkar top official although she then established a separate party. Tommy, however, has no experiences as a Golkar leader.

So far, Golkar members say the strongest candidates are still Aburizal Bakrie and Surya Paloh.

Aburizal is the current coordinating minister for people's welfare, while Surya is a media mogul and current Golkar chief patron.

Both of them are heavyweight businessmen with large amounts of financial capital, which political experts say is a deciding factor for Golkar members when picking their next leader.

Aburizal's business interests span from media to mining, while Surya is the owner of Metro TV and Media Indonesia daily newspaper.

However, Tommy's sudden entrance into the game has radically changed the political landscape, because he comes from a family that many consider as the richest in Indonesia.

Transparency International estimated Soeharto's assets to be worth US$15 to 35 billion, but he and his family have denied amassing their fortune through graft.

Akbar Tandjung, a supporter of Aburizal, said his man was still the front-runner regardless of the sudden entrance of new competitors. (hdt)