Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Novi Setuningsih, Bali/Jakarta – Jusuf Kalla has warned the Golkar Party that the public will take a dim view of its leadership election being conducted in an undemocratic manner.
The vice president was speaking after the political party he once led fired several of its elected legislators and another member, which could enable chairman Aburizal Bakrie to appoint four unelected people to the House of Representatives (DPR).
"We're a political party, a pillar of democracy – so everything that happens within the party should also be democratic," Kalla said on Tuesday evening in Jakarta.
Kalla was speaking after Bakrie loyalists engineered a purge of the party's reformers – including some its most-senior politicians – at the party's congress at Nusa Dua, Bali. Seven members from the rebel group, the "Presidium of Golkar Party Saviors," were all summarily dismissed for opposing the tycoon's bid to hold on to the chairmanship.
The seven were Agung Laksono, Agun Gunandjar Sudarsa, Laurens Siburian, Leo Nababan, Priyo Budi Santoso, Yorrys Raweyai, and Zainuddin Amali. Three of these men are elected representatives, as is Nusron Wahid, who was also booted out for failing to toe the line set out by Bakrie.
Indonesian law requires that elected members of the House be members of a political party. If representatives leave their political party, that party may appoint someone to replace the representative in question. Bakrie will therefore be able to appoint four people to Indonesia's powerful legislature, effectively at his own discretion.
The decision to expel the seven is, however, likely to be held up in the courts. Agun laughed off the ruling, branding it "illegal." "The dismissal is not valid," he said on Wednesday. "It doesn't meet the requirements stated in the party's regulations."
Yellow fever
Bakrie's fixer Nurdin Halid – a disgraced former head of the Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) who spent two years in jail for corruption – made the announcement on Tuesday night after being recorded briefing members of the party that he had a "cunning" plan.
It had been a busy day for Nurdin. Earlier on Tuesday he had pushed Bakrie to within a hair's breadth of a second term at the helm of Golkar after employing carefully planned artifice to take Airlangga Hartato out of the running.
The expulsion of the rebels was not, however, the end of the day's work for Bakrie. The party congress also fired Agus Gumiwang and Nusron, both of whom supported Joko Widodo and Kalla in the presidential election. Nurdin said that the two were dismissed for insubordination.
Poempida Hidayatulloh, another Joko supporter, was not fired on Tuesday – but many think his number may soon be up. "For Poempida the case will first be brought to the party court after this congress," Nurdin said.
The soap opera playing out at the Golkar congress is likely to have national implications.
Several senior members of the party remain furious that Bakrie gave up so easily in the inter-party negotiations after the April 9 parliamentary elections. He was too quick to fall in behind Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party chief Prabowo Subianto's presidential campaign, they say, which they viewed as an embarrassingly submissive display for the party of former president Suharto.
Bakrie has ensured Golkar remains a part of Prabowo's Red-White coalition. The nearest thing the coalition has to a spokesperson, Prabowo's billionaire brother Hashim Djojohadikusumo, has said the Red-White coalition will unite around opposing some of President Joko Widodo's reformist agenda.
The chances of Golkar splitting from Prabowo – something most analysts predicted would happen before Joko was inaugurated in October – will be slim if Bakrie retains the chairmanship of the party for another five year term.
Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/artifice-machinations-bali-bakrie-purges-golkar-rebels/