Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – In the end, the murky world of politics, where money, power and clout sometimes hold more sway than the merits of goals and projects, probably got to Muslim scholar Nurcholish Madjid.
And this could have influenced his decision to withdraw his bid to compete for Golkar's presidential nomination.
Indeed, his brief fling with Indonesia's second-largest political party was hardly seen as one that would endure. It was, as some analysts said, an unholy alliance – "like a nun being forced to perform erotic dancing in a nightclub".
Golkar had flirted with the idea that having a figure like Mr Nurcholish, with a reputation as the "moral teacher of the nation", could attract votes in the April parliamentary election, which would precede the country's first-ever direct presidential poll next year.
Banking on this, Mr Nurcholish's camp had expected to take advantage of Golkar's political power to win the presidency. But in practice, analysts said, this union was too idealistic to achieve. The 63-year-old, in fact, had little chance of beating other contenders in the ongoing party convention process to select a presidential candidate.
Perhaps it was this realisation that forced Mr Nurcholish to withdraw from the race, after concluding that the convention process was not as fair and democratic as he had thought. A series of visits to influential party officials in the provinces may have shown him that in the end, money – not the programmes he offered – would decide their support for him.
Preliminary assessments in Golkar's provincial charters showed that he was way behind other candidates like businessmen Surya Paloh and Aburizal Bakri and retired general Wiranto. Out of 29 provinces, only 14 gave their support to him, placing him second to last out of the 10 contenders.
This shows that although he may have had a shot at the presidency in the direct presidential election, he would have had a hard time doing it on a Golkar ticket facing tough competition ahead of the final convention in February.
Said political analyst Budiman Moerdijat of the Van Zorge Heffernan political risk consulting firm: "This is just the beginning of a very long and competitive process. Even those that came up tops at this stage may not be able to sustain the support in the upcoming months, much less those that had quite a poor early result like Nurcholish. The real battle will be fought in the lower level of regency chapters, where the bulk of the final votes in the convention will come from."
Of the more than 500 votes needed to win the convention in February, 416 votes will come from party chapters in the lower regency level.
Some have also linked Mr Nurcholish's decision to Golkar chairman Akbar Tandjung's official announcement on the same day that he was entering the race, despite an ongoing legal process on his graft conviction. Mr Akbar was sentenced to three years' imprisonment for embezzling state money but is awaiting the Supreme Court's decision on his appeal.
His participation in the presidential race has been guaranteed after Parliament killed an article in the recently passed Bill on the presidential election that forbids convicts from running for the top job. With him in the picture, the battle for Golkar's presidential ticket obviously got tougher.
Mr Budiman said Mr Akbar would likely wield his influence as party chairman to affect the outcome of the convention. "Even if he decides later to pull out of the convention, he could throw his weight behind one of the candidates in return for a political favour if his choice of candidate does become the president," the analyst said.
For Mr Nurcholish though, it is not the end of the road yet. Smaller Islamic and secular parties are now toying with the idea of making him their presidential nominee.