Jakarta – Though the Golkar Party has given its official support to presidential hopeful Prabowo Subianto and running mate Hatta Radjasa, several of its members have expressed doubt over the alliance.

Deputy head of Golkar's advisory council Luhut Panjaitan spoke out on Tuesday, extending his favor to Joko Widodo and Jusuf Kalla by praising the PDI-P candidate's cooperative coalition. He referred to Joko's coalition as small but preferable the opposition's, which he said was based on power sharing.

"We all understand that a president and vice president are chosen by the people, not parties, no matter how big the coalition is. Those parties will only fight for ministerial positions and other roles that hold power," he said on Tuesday.

Other Golkar members who declined to follow chairman Aburizal Bakrie's lead in supporting the Prabowo-Hatta ticket include head of the party's national office Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita, member of its national research division Indra J Piliang and House members Meutya Hafid and Poempida Hidayatullah.

Poempida said he's proud of Golkar members who are not afraid to make their own decisions by thinking rationally.

"If it continues like this, we can see there's hope for Golkar in the future. There's no reason to fire Jokowi-JK supporters [from Golkar]. Even one of Golkar's founding fathers, Suhardiman, supports them. Will he be fired too?" Poempida asked.

Golkar deputy secretary general Tantowi Yahya said such a split in opinions was not a rare occurrence in Golkar.

"It's not the first time this has happened; look at the 2004 elections," he said, referring to the year Golongan Karya members chose to nominate retired army general Wiranto as president. The top position ultimately went to Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and running mate Jusuf Kalla, which according to Tantowi, was partly due to votes cast by Golkar politicians supporting the pair.

He added that he sees the deviating members as mature individuals able to make rational decisions. "They know what the party would do regarding their choices," he said.

Deputy treasurer Bambang Soesatyo expressed a similar sentiment. "Differences are normal. It's politics," he argued. "We hope the party will act wisely regarding this [difference of opinion]." If Aburizal had been nominated as Joko's running mate, he added, Golkar would not be dealing with a split.

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/golkar-riven-presidential-candidacy/