President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has called on retired Indonesian Military (TNI) generals looking to join the 2014 presidential election race to uphold democratic values while contesting the country's highest office.
Yudhoyono told the gathering of the Military Academy alumni on Tuesday night that the country's democracy was irreversible and that to run for office, retired military generals must stay within those rules.
"We now use a multiparty democracy. Some of us join and struggle within political parties. Some even set up their own political parties," Yudhoyono said as quoted by Antara.
Yudhoyono also said that former military members must adapt to the new situation. "Indonesia is undergoing a transformation and we should all adapt to new changes. We don't want to live in a dinosaur scenario, where everything around us changes but we remain the same," he said.
Later on in the event, a representative from the alumni, Gen. (ret) Luhut Pandjaitan, a former trade minister under the administration of president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, proposed that Yudhoyono could help choose candidates most suited to succeed him in 2014, for the sake of continuity.
Luhut proposed that one of the main criteria for running in the 2014 presidential election was that the candidate ought to have a good track record, which was apparently a veiled reference to chief patron of the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party Lt. Gen. (ret) Prabowo Soebianto. Prabowo himself was absent.
Former senior TNI officials who were present at the meeting were former TNI commander Gen. (ret) Endriartono Sutarto, former TNI chief Gen. (ret) Tyasno Sudarto and former National Police chief Gen. Suroyo Bimantoro.
Luhut said that Prabowo was not invited to the meeting due to logistical problems. "We don't have enough space," he said.
Luhut said that Yudhoyono's message about playing fair in the 2014 presidential election would still apply to Prabowo in spite of his no-show at the gathering.
A number of former generals are expected to join the 2014 race, including Prabowo, chairman of the People's Conscience Party (Hanura) Gen. (ret) Wiranto, Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto and Endriartono, who was said to be joining the National Democratic Party.
Prabowo is expected to be the most popular candidate in the poll but his presidential ambitions have been met with resistance by rival political parties considering him too "dangerous".
Major political factions have agreed not to challenge or amend a law that sets a high threshold for parties to nominate a candidate for the presidency.
Major political parties in the House of Representatives agreed that only parties or coalitions holding at least 20 percent of the seats in the House, or who garnered at least 25 percent of the popular vote, could nominate candidates.
The leadership of the Democratic Party had said that it would only nominate somebody from within the party and that Yudhoyono would have the final say.
Wiranto prospects are likely dim, with his political party struggling to meet the parliamentary threshold and his single digit favorability rating.
A recent survey by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) revealed that 4.1 percent of respondent would vote for Wiranto, against Prabowo's 17.9 percent.