Ina Parlina, Jakarta – In the midst of a rebellion by rival politicians hoping to foil the presidential bid of Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie, the party's leadership maintains that it will press ahead with the plan to nominate Aburizal despite his low approval rating.
Golkar Party secretary-general Idrus Marham said that Aburizal's nomination was final and he called on party members to respect the decision.
Aburizal, once one of the country's richest men, was named the party's presidential candidate in July last year, and reportedly spent a huge sum to improve his standing in public opinion polls.
Idrus also verbally attacked the party's advisory board chairman, Akbar Tandjung, who had repeatedly called on party members to reconsider Aburizal's candidacy. "The job of the advisory board is to advise the party, not to express an opinion in public," Idrus said in a press conference on Tuesday.
He said that the party's central board would strive to defend Aburizal's candidacy. "We will fight anyone who opposes the decision," Idrus said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Akbar made a statement that could be interpreted as a call to reconsider Aburizal's candidacy. "Who says that Ical's [nomination] is non-negotiable?" Akbar told reporters. "There's no such things as a fixed decision in politics. In politics, changes can always happen," he said.
Late last month, Akbar said party members at the regional and local levels had called for an alternative candidate for the 2014 presidential election. Akbar said that party members wanted him to convey the message in a national executives' meeting scheduled for October.
Akbar also suggested that Golkar hold another convention to democratically elect its presidential candidate. He also advised Golkar leaders to keep an eye on the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP), which he said could be Golkar's strongest rival in 2014 general election.
Jakarta Governor Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, a member of the PDI-P, is seen as a strong contender if he runs in the 2014 presidential election, outdoing Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) chief patron Lt. Gen. (ret.) Prabowo Subianto. Aburizal's electability rating, meanwhile, remains in the single digits.
One major stumbling block against Aburizal's electability is the Lapindo mudflow in Sidoarjo, East Java, which was allegedly caused by a drilling project operated by PT Lapindo Brantas, an exploration company partly controlled by the Bakrie family.
The ongoing mudflow has displaced thousands and cost the government trillions of rupiah in recovery measures. Contacted separately, Golkar deputy secretary-general Nurul Arifin shrugged off suggestions that there was a rift within the party.
"What happened today is that Pak Akbar once again repeated what he has been saying. It's as if he wants to prod party members into preparing themselves more for the election," she said. "There is no rift. Ical remains our presidential candidate."
Nurul also made no comment, but consolidation would take place at next month's national party meeting.
Political expert Arie Sudjito said it would be difficult for Golkar to find candidates besides Aburizal as he was a Golkar benefactor. The situation has put Golkar in a conundrum.
"As the main benefactor, he will not let somebody from outside the party be nominated as its presidential candidate, but at the same time, the party has no alternative figure," Arie said.