Hans David Tampubolon, Jakarta – A Golkar Party senior politician says that the current leadership under Aburizal Bakrie has sunk the party into deeper pit of bad public image.

"As of now, there are two high ranking Golkar officials who give public statement about their ideas without a prior discussion at the party executive board.... this causes Golkar to receive a lot of condemnation," Zainal Bintang told The Jakarta Post via a text message on Wednesday.

"First, there is a statement about freezing the Bank Century bailout case and there is another statement about the necessities to have a disbursement of aspiration fund for each legislator. These ideas have made Golkar the common enemy in front of the public," he added.

Golkar's Priyo Budi Santoso was the party elite who once said that the Bank Century case, which revolves around a bailout that ten folded to Rp 6.76 trillion (US$716 million), could be put into ice after one of the alleged people deemed responsible for the bailout, former finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, was ousted from her post and started her new job as one of the World Bank's managing directors.

The issue of aspiration fund proposal, which was later abandoned due to mounting public opposition, was raised by numerous Golkar legislators, such as Harry Azhar Azis. The idea of the fund was to disburse Rp 15 billion of taxpayers' money into the pocket of each legislator for the sake of the development within their respective electoral region.

Zaenal added that Aburizal might need some assistance from Golkar chief patron, Akbar Tanjung, to prevent the party from sinking even deeper.

"Akbar Tanjung must actively guide Aburizal Bakrie, so that there will be no more Golkar members who recklessly make any statements that do nothing good for the party in the future," he said.