Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The Golkar Party has set a minimum target of winning 25 percent of the total votes in the 2014 legislative elections to pave the way for party chairman Aburizal Bakrie to contend the presidential race.
Speaking after the closing ceremony of the party's leadership meeting here on Friday, Aburizal said the target was quite realistic and in line with the party's increasing electability as had been shown by independent polling in the past ten months.
"With intensified internal consolidation and harder work, Golkar should be able to garner between 30 to 35 percent, as high as the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle [PDI-P] achieved in 1999," he said.
Independent surveys have shown a consistent increase in the party's electability from 12 percent in January to 15 percent in June and 17 percent this month.
Golkar chief patron Akbar Tandjung said the party would be prepared to compete against the PDI-P and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party – winners of legislative elections in 1999 and 2009, respectively – to come back as a winner in 2014.
"With the three successes of internal consolidation, 'regeneration' and pro-people programs, Golkar's political engine is moving fast at the grassroots level. It [the political engine] will be moving faster in the next two years to win the legislative elections," Akbar said.
The three-day leadership meeting ended without political statements or a formal response to the joint statement from provincial chapter leaders asking that Aburizal be nominated as a presidential candidate in 2014. The meeting's results, including recommendations and political statements, will be published early next month.
Akbar, who remains an influential figure in the party, said Aburizal still had negative ratings but he would emerge victorious compared to, among others, former president Megawati Soekarnoputri of PDI-P, the Great Indonesia Movement Party's (Gerindra) chairman Prabowo and First Lady Any Yudhoyono.
Akbar acknowledged that there had been internal hesitancy about Aburizal's presidential bid. However, he believed the nomination, which is to be announced in 2012, would win support from the party.
Political analysts warned Golkar against supporting Aburizal's presidential bid as they considered it to be counterproductive.
Sukardi Rinakit of the Sugeng Sarjadi Syndicate and J. Kristiadi of the Centre for Strategic International Studies (CSIS) said Golkar's popularity would likely decline if Aburizal announced his bid now while his political rivals would easily attack him based on two major issues: the Lapindo mudflow and the tax mafia.
They said Aburizal, whose family owns the Bakrie Group of companies, could buy the political support to minimize internal resistance within the party but he needed to work on his own image.
"The internal resistance will likely come from party cadres from Kosgoro who are still loyal to Agung Laksono and supporters of Surya Paloh who recently quit Golkar," said Sukardi, adding that the factions of Akbar and Yogyakarta Sultan Hamengku Bowono X stood behind Aburizal.
Kristiadi said if Aburizal was serious in his bid, he should first settle his case with the mudflow victims in Sidoardjo, East Java, and clear his name in relation to the tax mafia and jailed tax officer Gayus Tambunan.