Anita Rachman & Nurfika Osman, Jakarta – Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, the youngest son of former President Suharto, hinted at presidential ambitions on Friday, saying he would consider accepting a nomination in 2014.

Speaking at an event at the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), Tommy said he was open to offers but would have to weigh the parties making them. "Political parties can nominate anyone they like, but it's up to the nominee to accept or not," he said.

Tommy, who previously served in high positions within the Golkar Party during his father's time in power, has since drifted off the political stage. Last year, however, he was launched an audacious bid to chair Golkar. He went on to lose spectacularly to Aburizal Bakrie, garnering no votes.

In August, he tried for the more modest chair of the Mutual Assistance Families Society (MKGR), one of Golkar's three core organizations, but lost again, this time to Priyo Budi Santoso, an Aburizal loyalist.

In September, Yus Usman Sumanegara, a member of the Republican Party and a former secretary general of the People's Conscience Party (Hanura), said several small parties had scheduled a meeting "to introduce ourselves to Tommy."

Yus declined to name the parties involved but said at least 14 of them had contested the 2009 general elections but failed to get into the House of Representatives. He said the meeting would discuss "the possibility of nominating Tommy as a presidential candidate."

"Although we're still in the early stages of our relationship with Tommy, there's a big possibility we'll back him," Yus said at the time.

Under electoral laws, a presidential candidate may only be nominated by a party or coalition that has won at least 20 percent of votes in the general election.

Last year, the only party that met the 20 percent threshold was the Democratic Party, while Golkar, which got 21 percent in 2004, had to bring other parties on board to augment the 14 percent it got in the polls.

On Friday, Lili Romli, a political analyst from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said Tommy's chances of being nominated by Golkar or any other big parties were slim. "They've already got their own prominent figures, as do the smaller parties," Lili told the Jakarta Globe.

"But Tommy's wealthy, so he could afford to set up a new party, just as Prabowo and Wiranto did. However, I doubt his party would get a lot of votes because he lacks charm and character. He doesn't have a very magnetic personality, despite being Suharto's son."

Prabowo Subianto, formerly married to Tommy's sister, and Wiranto are both former generals who went on to establish political parties that won seats in the House in the 2009 polls.

Meanwhile, Tommy used his speech on Friday at the MPR to rant against what he called the disintegration of the country, calling the secession of East Timor in 1999 "the worst thing" for the nation as a whole.

He also accused the current government of not maximizing Indonesia's economic potential, saying it was still considered high-risk by investors and was not as competitive as other countries in the region.