Jakarta – Despite its extensive media resources, the Nasdem Party remained a "young and small party", and its odds of a strong showing in the 2014 general elections were low, political observers said.
By electing media mogul Hary Tanoesoedibjo as chairman of its board of experts, Nasdem has shown that it is a worthy contender in the upcoming polls.
Hary, 46, whose net media assets stood at US$595 million according to Forbes magazine, added to the party's formidable media clout that already had strong ties to Surya Paloh, owner of Metro TV and Media Indonesia and cofounder of the National Democrat mass organization.
Nasdem chief Patrice Rio Capella told The Jakarta Post following Hary's official welcoming that his party was ready to challenge the dominance of the big parties in Indonesia, aiming to be a top-tier party in the next general election.
Rio said the party supported the House's plan to increase the legislative threshold to 4 percent, boasting that Nasdem "would have no problem to pass even the 5 percent threshold".
Political analysts, however, played down Nasdem's media strength, saying that media influence alone was not enough to help a political party thrive in the upcoming elections.
Soegeng Sarjadi Syndicate executive director Sukardi Rinakit said that, because the Nasdem Party was still very young, it would have a "hard time" dethroning well-established parties such as the Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) or Golkar merely by media power.
"Media is merely one factor in politics. There are other factors such as party infrastructure, the quality of cadres, programs, its approach to grassroots personalities and networking," Sukardi said on Thursday.
Sukardi told the Post that it would be impossible for Nasdem to repeat Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party's achievement, which as a new party achieve unprecedented successes in the 2004 and 2009 general elections.
He pointed to the fact that Nasdem still lacked any influential, popular figures to lead the party.
Reform Institute political observer Zaim Saidi also dismissed the notion that Nasdem would be a serious threat to the establishment in 2014, saying that parties were built on more than media power. (sat)