Max Lane – Indonesia's main opposition party faces both a succession and an identity crisis. The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), headed by former President Megawati Sukarnoputri, is Indonesia's largest political party by vote share. In the 2024 parliamentary elections, it won over 25.3 million votes (16.7 per cent), followed in second and third place, respectively, by Golkar with 23.2 million and President Prabowo Subianto's Gerindra with about 20 million votes. The PDI-P is an important player in Indonesian politics.
PDI-P is the political party whose character has been least formed by integration with the state or with any faction of Indonesia's conglomerate class. Of course, Megawati was briefly president from July 2001 to October 2004, and the PDI-P had cabinet members during Joko Widodo's presidency, in both of his five-year terms.
However, its history is markedly different from Golkar, former president Suharto's ruling party for 32 years and distinct from the Demokrat and Gerindra parties that were formed as vehicles for the presidential ambitions of two Suharto-era generals (former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Prabowo). Meanwhile, the National Democrat Party (Nasdem) was formed as a vehicle for Surya Paloh, a major business figure; Prabowo and Surya Paloh were both active in Golkar.
The PDI-P emerged from the opposition's clash with Suharto in 1996-1998, splitting from the pro-Suharto Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI; 1973-2003). It was not formed as a vehicle for a former New Order political elite or military figure, nor is it based on one of the long-standing religious formations (like any of the Muslim-affiliated parties). PDI-P has maintained relations with Indonesian business figures over the years. Megawati's late husband, Taufiq Kiemas, was a successful businessman. However, these connections are not the primary determinants of its character, but its history is.
Despite having a different history from the other parties, it has advocated a similar programme and outlook. During Widodo's presidency, the PDI-P did not advocate a different policy orientation from the government. Its more recent criticisms of the political status quo are a direct response to Widodo's betrayal of the party embodied in his support for Prabowo's presidential candidacy in 2024 (instead of the PDI-P's candidate, Ganjar Pranowo) and the dynasty building manifested in Widodo's son's selection as Prabowo's vice presidential candidate.
The PDI-P's internal political life is marked by tensions between those elements committed to the dominant, shared programmatic outlook of the elite, especially based in parliament, and those more connected to the populist Sukarnoist ideology used at the grassroots level when recruiting and educating party members, including youth and students.
This contradiction explains the time it has taken for Megawati to meet President Prabowo, and the ambiguities in the comments of PDI-P and other politicians after the two leaders met on 7 April at Megawati's residence. There was no statement by Prabowo or Megawati following this, but it did provoke some polemics. Months of speculation as to whether they would meet were tied to people's interest in the extent to which PDI-P would have a friendly or a hostile, oppositional approach to Prabowo's government.
There are internal divisions on this question. One section of PDI-P has been keen for an accommodation with Prabowo, despite his continuing closeness to Widodo. A central figure in this faction is Megawati's daughter, Puan Maharani, 51, Speaker of the House (DPR) and the PDI-P caucus leader in the DPR. Megawati's son and Puan's half-brother, Muhammad Prananda Prabowo, 55, leads the other faction and is on the party's national leadership. His faction supports a more oppositional style. A 5 March 2025 Jakarta Post report mentioned that Prananda and Megawati were closer ideologically, while Puan was more accommodating to Prabowo. On 1 May, for instance, Puan attended a May Day rally organised by unions supporting Prabowo, where he was the main speaker. Unions critical of Prabowo organised separate May Day events.
Former PDI-P secretary general Hasto Kristiyanto was arrested in February by the Corruption Eradication Commission, accused of helping to hide a PDI-P member wanted for bribing an electoral commission figure. The Jakarta political elite speculated that this was a political move to discredit Hasto and disrupt the PDI-P's preparation for its congress, originally scheduled for April but now postponed. Megawati has not replaced Hasto, taking on the work of the secretary general herself while he is detained, but has designated two people close to her and Hasto as party spokespersons.
Since the Megawati-Prabowo meeting, there have been rival portrayals of their meeting and how it should be interpreted. The senior Gerindra politician who accompanied Prabowo, Sufmi Dasco Ahmad, described it as "warm and intimate". He claimed that Megawati expressed hope that the Prabowo government would be effective and that the PDI-P would also work for that result. Ahmad Muzani, Gerindra's secretary general, gave a similar assessment.
Puan stated that "PDI-P will work together to build, help, and synergise in carrying out the president's duties in the future together with Pak Prabowo". Her statement is consistent with the interpretations given by the Gerindra politicians. Meanwhile, there has been no statement by Megawati either on her meeting with Prabowo or on the postponement of the PDI-P congress.
In this silence, however, more reports of a looming conflict at the upcoming congress between the Puan and Prananda factions are appearing. The PDI-P's important Solo branch has declared that it supports Prananda to replace Megawati as party chair if she stands down or takes on a new (higher) position. Megawati recently appeared in public with Prananda. Prananda's focus on internal party building and lack of public profile (compared to Puan), however, means that whether his differences with Puan's faction are over programme (policies) or a matter of style or attitude to Widodo remains unclear.
It is PDI-P's history that underpins their internal divisions. While Nasdem has also stayed out of Prabowo's governing coalition, it has not suffered internal division on the question of whether to remain in opposition. Nasdem chair Surya Paloh simply says that as his party did not support Prabowo in the 2024 elections, Nasdem "knew its place".
In this sense, the legacy of the opposition to Suharto, including that of the PDI-P, still plays a role.
[Max Lane is a Visiting Senior Fellow at the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute. He has been an academic at the University of Sydney, Victoria University (Melbourne), Murdoch University and the National University of Singapore and has lectured at universities in Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States.]