Armando Siahaan – Continuing its effort to court smaller parties, Golkar on Thursday signaled the possibility of a partnership with the Reform Star Party, while at the same time reiterating that the National Democrats were not a threat ahead of the 2014 elections.
A meeting between Golkar chairman Aburizal Bakrie and Bursah Zarnubi, chairman of the Reform Star Party (PBR), concluded with both men declaring that they shared the same "grand idea" for the country's development, which is to progress from the village level.
"We've agreed to play a central role in developing the country together," Aburizal said. He said he hoped the two parties could work together under one organization.
However, the two leaders have yet to agree on the form such a partnership would take. Bursah said it could be a full merger, a confederation or could even mean transforming his Islamic party into a more secular one.
"This grand idea does not unite us ideologically or politically, but economically," Bursah said, noting that Golkar was a nationalist party and PBR was Islamic.
In the 2009 elections, PBR was one of 28 parties that failed to meet the 2.5 percent legislative threshold required to qualify for a seat in the House of Representatives, winning only 1.21 percent of the votes.
With the House currently debating the possibility of increasing the legislative threshold to simplify its political makeup, smaller parties are seeking ways to secure seats in the legislature, inevitably luring big parties for merger possibilities.
The meeting with PBR was the second example in two weeks of Golkar's effort to engage smaller parties. Last week, Bakrie met with Indonesian Muslim Brotherhood (Parmusi) chairman Bach-tiar Chamsyah, with both leaders acknowledging that the groups were looking into a possible partnership.
Golkar's secretary general, Idrus Marham, said the party was in communication with other small organizations, but stopped short of naming them.
Its willingness to ally itself with Islamic organizations such as PBR and Parmusi seems to indicate Golkar has put aside ideology as the single most important factor in amassing more power to the party.
"Golkar is an open party; whether it's green, blue or red, that's not a problem," Aburizal said, adding that Golkar would consider engaging any political party that shared the same vision in terms of the country's economic development.
Golkar's talks with smaller parties come amid an internal rift between Aburizal's camp and that of Surya Paloh, which established the National Democrats, a social organization that recently declared political ambitions for the 2014 elections.
Some analysts have said that Golkar's aggressive engagement of smaller parties is a preemptive measure to anticipate a loss of support if the National Democrats do transform into a political party, which could steal a significant number of members from Golkar.
But the party's deputy secretary general, Nurul Arifin, insisted the move was solely to accommodate smaller parties that need to coalesce with bigger groups ahead of the possible doubling of the legislative threshold.
Idrus also dismissed the idea that the National Democrats posed a threat to the Golkar Party. "The National Democrats are not a decisive factor in political processes," he said.
"Based on leaked information, if a survey shows that the National Democrats' electability is between 5 and 10 percent, they will transform into a political party," Idrus said.
If the transformation takes place, Golkar will urge its members currently belonging to the National Democrats to leave what is currently a social organization, he added.
Idrus noted that though the National Democrats were established by an active Golkar member, the two groups had no organizational relationship.
The secretary general added that while there was no legal prohibition on members of political parties joining civil-society organizations, since the National Democrats were established by a former candidate for the Golkar chairmanship, recruiting Golkar members "is not ethical."