Margareth S. Aritonang – Golkar Party advisory board chief Akbar Tandjung will be told to stop publicly attacking Golkar chief Aburizal Bakrie to avoid damaging the party's chances in the 2014 election.
Ridwan Bae, chairman of Golkar's North Sulawesi office, said that there had been a concerted move from provincial party leaders to discourage Akbar from attacking Aburizal, who the party has proclaimed as its presidential candidate.
Ridwan said that at least 10 provincial Golkar leaders were scheduled to meet with Akbar later this week to warn him that his constant attacks of Aburizal might damage the party.
"We regret his [Akbar] actions in questioning Pak Aburizal's electability in the 2014 presidential election," Ridwan said in a meeting at the headquarters of Golkar Party lawmakers in the House of Representatives on Monday.
"He should have come to us to voice his criticism, instead of talking to the media. He has violated our party's code of ethics." Ridwan said that the provincial leaders expected to have an amiable meeting with Akbar to warn him of his misconduct. "We want to talk to him, not fire him," Ridwan said.
As a chairman of Golkar's advisory board, Akbar previously issued Aburizal a six-month deadline to boost his electability and gain the public's trust, else face the annulment of his nomination by July.
Opinion polls have regularly placed Aburizal at the bottom of the list of most electable candidates, far others, such as the chairwoman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), former president Megawati Soekarnoputri; Lt. Gen. (ret) Prabowo Subianto, the patron of the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party; Constitutional Court chief Mahfud MD and former vice president Jusuf Kalla.
Meanwhile, senior Golkar politician Ade Komarudin called on all Golkar politicians to honor the party's decision to nominate Aburizal as its presidential candidate.
"I call on all who are involved in this rift to settle down because it will harm the party. People know that Golkar will be strong if respected figures like Pak Aburizal and Pak Akbar can unite," Ade said.
Ade, who is also the secretary of the Golkar Party's lawmakers in the House, warned against possible efforts to divide and weaken the party, stating that Golkar would not review its nomination of Aburizal, which he said had been validated by the party's nomination mechanism.
Separately, Akbar rejected statements that he had tried to undermine Aburizal's candidacy, saying that the advisory board's decisions were made in the party's best interests.
"Many surveys have tracked Golkar's rising electability. However, we don't see a similar improvement for [Aburizal]. This is why we have warned that the party needs to watch his nomination closely. We never asked the party to evaluate or reconsider his nomination, just to be careful about it," Akbar said.