Slamet Susanto – Presidential hopeful Jusuf Kalla criticized Monday's potentially rebellious meeting of a group of Golkar Party elite figures as unethical, saying he was against any speeding up of the next party congress.
Spokesman for the 'JK-Win' campaign team Yuddhy Chrisnandi underlined that based on reliable sources and media reports, the meeting held by Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie in Menteng was aimed at calling for a speeded up Golkar congress before the party anniversary in October.
"We see the election as a serious issue and all party members and figures should be solid in backing up Pak Kalla and his running mate Wiranto," he said here on Tuesday.
Yuddhy was apparently suspicious that the meeting and any speeding up of Congress was aimed at toppling Kalla from the party's top position and at shifting the party's support to the SBY-Boediono pair.
Also attending the meeting were House Speaker Agung Laksono, former chairman of Golkar Akbar Tandjung and Chairman of the Golkar faction in the House of Representatives Priyo Budi Santoso.
"I am stressing that such a meeting is rebellious. If they have any objections to Kalla's candidacy, they should now keep it to themselves because they have previously accepted the special national party meeting which recommended the nomination of Kalla as presidential hopeful," he added.
Separately Agung Laksono confirmed his presence in the meeting at Aburizal's residence but denied the meeting was held to call for an accelerated congress to topple Kalla.
"It was just a friendly gathering between old friends, nothing special. We still maintain our stance to support Kalla and Wiranto," he said.
Meanwhile political analyst at the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) Burhanuddin Muhtadi, said such a political move was no long surprising as a similar thing happened five years ago when Akbar was ousted in the party's Bali congress in 2004. "Golkar is more like a business entity rather than a political party. Its members are the stockholders and each has different interests," he said.
"In my view, Aburizal is very pessimistic regarding the chances of the JK-Wiranto to win the presidential election. Therefore, he is trying to bring his block closer to SBY who according to him has a bigger chance in the race," he added.
Burhanuddin said that he thought Aburizal had two main agendas in the back of his mind, which motivated him to move closer to Yudhoyono rather than to JK.
"Firstly, Aburizal wants to take over the party's chairmanship. Secondly, he also wants to be re-appointed as a minister in the next presidential cabinet. By maintaining his position in the country's power elite, he will be able to protect his businesses," Burhanuddin said.
He said Kalla has been the support for Aburizal's businesses throughout the past few years, but the current situation has forced Aburizal to be realistic and move closer to SBY.
In a related development, Kalla and Wiranto met Yogyakarta governor Sultan Hamengkubowono X and several influential clerics in Magelang, Central Java, to seek their political support in the presidential race.
After the meeting with Hamengkubuwono, Kalla said that he and Wiranto had discussed the concept of developing national independence, unity and a people-oriented economy.
"It has been our stance to put the independence issue in the front row and he (the sultan) will remain a source of inspiration to us," he said.
Hamengkubuwono said if the pair won the race, they should give top priority to the accelerated development of the maritime and fisheries industry sector which had yet to command adequate attention from all sides.
"Whoever wins the race, he or she should improve the country's competitiveness in the global economy."