Golkar chairman rallies behind
Megawati By Richel
Langit
JAKARTA - Golkar Party chairman Akbar
Tanjung is not contesting the September 20 election, nor
is he a member of either political party whose
candidates advanced to the second round of the
presidential election. But when compared with
presidential candidates Megawati Sukarnoputri of the
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of the Democratic Party,
Tanjung is obviously the busiest in the run-up to
the election run-off.
Since mid-August,
Tanjung and other Golkar heavyweights have been visiting
party leaders and members across the country,
instructing them to throw their support behind incumbent
President Megawati, who is still trailing Yudhoyono, a
retired four-star army general, just two weeks before
voting day. (Late last month Tanjung warned party
officials they would face sanctions, including
expulsion, if they do not vote for Megawati.)
Tanjung's hard work seems to be paying off.
According to the latest surveys, Megawati's popularity
rose to around 30% in late August, compared with 26% in
the first round of presidential elections on July 5.
Yudhoyono's popularity, meanwhile, has slipped to around
60% in the same period, down from 68% in late July. With
only two weeks to go, political pundits are now
predicting a tight competition between Megawati and
Yudhoyono in the election.
"Megawati's chance of
winning is greater, while Yudhoyono's camp would have to
work hard to maintain its lead," Soegeng Sarjadi
Syndicated researcher Sukardi Rinakit a told a press
conference early last week. The Jakarta-based
institution revealed that 41.3% of survey respondents
would vote for Yudhoyono, while 34.68% would opt for
Megawati.
After looking at how Tanjung and other
Golkar leaders are going out of their way to support
Megawati in the upcoming election, suspicions are rife
that PDI-P and Golkar entered into "dirty" horse-trading
ahead of the election.
Indeed, Golkar, which won
the April 5 legislative election, signed onto a loose
coalition dubbed the "Nationhood Coalition" with PDI-P,
the Muslim-based United Development Party (PPP) and the
Christian-oriented Prosperous Peace Party (PDS) on
August 19, to support Megawati. They also agreed to join
hands in the DPR, where the four parties have a total of
307 seats out of the 550-seat House. Details of the
deal, however, have not been disclosed.
Golkar
leaders who are against the so-called Nationhood
Coalition have suggested that Megawati promised to give
Golkar at least eight seats in her cabinet ministry in
order to win the party's backing. Both PDI-P and Golkar
have neither confirmed nor denied the allegation.
A closer look at Tanjung's political ambitions
and rifts within Golkar, however, suggests that the
House speaker is fighting for his own political survival
rather than Megawati's. More than that, he and other
party leaders are also battling to preserve Golkar, the
political machinery of former dictator Suharto for more
than three decades.
After failing to secure the
party's endorsement in Golkar's presidential convention
last May, apparently due to money politics, Tanjung has
been setting his sights on the 2009 presidential
election. Yet he can pursue his political ambition only
if he remains Golkar chairman and the party remains
intact.
As it stands now, Tanjung, who has
successfully consolidated Golkar in the past five years
and shaken off waves of protests by pro-democracy
activists and students, is losing his grip on the party.
Some party leaders have accused Tanjung of
half-heartedly supporting Wiranto, Golkar's presidential
candidate in the July 5 election. Some Golkar leaders
have also publicly pledged to support Yudhoyono's
running mate Jusuf Kalla, also a Golkar leader.
A victory by the Yudhoyono-Kalla team in the
upcoming election would likely encourage party members
to move over to Yudhoyono's Democratic Party or to rally
behind Kalla against Tanjung. Using the lure of power
and money, Kalla would easily mobilize Golkar leaders at
the provincial and regency levels to revolt against
Tanjung, a move that would not only dash Tanjung's
presidential dream but also threaten party
disintegration.
The only way for Tanjung to keep
his presidential dream alive is to defeat the
Yudhoyono-Kalla ticket. That explains why the Golkar
chairman and other party heavyweights have been touring
the country to mobilize support for Megawati. Following
the declaration of the Nationhood Coalition, the four
parties held a coordination meeting, with Tanjung as the
coordinator. He and other leaders have threatened to
expel party members who do not support Golkar's decision
to back Megawati. They also threatened to oust Kalla.
Yudhoyono has started to feel the pinch. While
he and running mate Kalla still top all surveys on
popular votes, their popularity is diminishing. And
Yudhoyono, who has declined to form a coalition with
other political parties ahead of the election, appears
to be at a loss on how to fend off Tanjung's political
guerrilla, thanks to his well-maintained political
machinery.
Thus, it is not an exaggeration to
say that the September 20 election is not a showdown
between incumbent Megawati and her former coordinating
minister for political and security affairs, Yudhoyono,
but between the Golkar chairman and the former four-star
army general.
Megawati knows all too well that
Tanjung needs her victory. While she has made frequent
visits to Indonesia's rural regions, where she
consistently has handed out donations to the country's
poor, she appears to be less enthusiastic in mobilizing
her political machine. Unlike Golkar, Megawati's PDI-P
has refrained itself from publicly mobilizing its
supporters.
A Megawati victory would allow
Tanjung and his Golkar Party to have access to the
government. A source close to Tanjung said that over the
next five years the Golkar chairman just wants to be an
adviser to the president and to lead the party to ensure
that its political machinery is working well in time for
the 2009 election. And since Golkar has signed an
agreement to form a loose coalition with PDI-P, PPP and
PDS up until that time, Tanjung would be certain of
support from the three parties in 2009.
Richel Langit is a freelance
journalist based in Jakarta and covering topics
including education, health, the environment and
politics. She worked as a reporter for The Manila Times
in the Philippines for five years before moving to
Jakarta in 1999.
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