Ruslan Sangadji and Rizal Harahap, Pekanbaru – The Golkar Party's eighth national congress is awash in money, with rival candidates for the chairmanship shelling out hundreds of millions prior to the vote.
The camp of chief welfare minister Aburizal Bakrie, one of the four candidates for chairman to replace the outgoing Vice President Jusuf Kalla, began handing out money to each member of the party's regional branches from across Indonesia, a day after the congress opened on Monday evening.
Aburizal's team handed over Rp 250 million to each provincial branch head and another Rp 200 million to each regency and municipal branch head. The team said the money was "funds for the party's activities in each of the provincial, regency and municipal branches".
They also promised to hand out an additional Rp 500 billion if Aburizal, head of the country's wealthiest family, was elected chairman, and pledged to build permanent branch offices in all provinces.
Several branch heads admitted Wednesday they had taken money from Aburizal's camp. A regency branch head from Sulawesi, speaking on condition of anonymity, said "it's not wrong" to receive the money.
He added it was not technically vote buying because the money would be used to finance the party's regional operations. "I won't use the money for myself, but rather to finance party programs in my region," he said.
Aburizal has repeatedly said the money being handed around is not a kick-back, but simply a fund intended for development activities by the party at the regional level. "I'm a member of Golkar's executive board, so the money I gave constitutes funding to support Golkar in the regions," he said.
The other candidates in the race for chairman are media mogul Surya Paloh, upstart legislator Yuddy Chrisnandi, and convicted murderer Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, the youngest son of former president Soeharto.
Surya's supporters say they were promised a party development fund of Rp 300 million. However, as of Wednesday, only Rp 100 million had been handed out, with the remainder to be paid only if Surya won the election.
This development saw several of Surya's supporters jump ship to Aburizal's camp. But there are also a number of others who fully supported Surya until the voting time.
Over at Tommy's camp, meanwhile, close aides said they had already put together a first-stage Rp 500 billion operational fund for those who supported him.
The money will be shared among branch heads supporting Tommy, but observations by The Jakarta Post concluded very little of the money was being paid out. As for Yuddy, there were no reports as of Wednesday that he had been buying votes.
Most officials at the congress say none of the regional branch executives are backing his candidacy.
"I think the party executives at the regional level are evaluating who has the biggest chance of leading Golkar," said a regional party official speaking on condition of anonymity.
"That's why they're being really picky about whose money to take, and they're certainly not going to take it from the candidates least likely to win."
Delegates' votes were not just being bought with money at the congress. The lavish facilities on offer included free temporary membership at the local golf course and room service massages, standing in stark contrast to conditions elsewhere in Sumatra.
Over in Padang and surrounding areas in West Sumatra, thousands are feared dead and many more remain without homes, food or medical care following last week's 7.6-magnitude earthquake.
Thousands of homes and offices have collapsed in the area, leaving rescuers overwhelmed with the scale of the disaster.
Observers have criticized the Golkar congress as a typical example of party that is completely oblivious of the issues facing its grassroots constituents once the elections are over.