Golkar Party officials have started to point their fingers at Vice President Jusuf Kalla’s low popularity and mistakes in his campaign strategy as factors behind his defeat in the presidential election.
As the blaming game started to emerge after quick counts from all pollsters showed Wednesday that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono would win the election by one round, some party officials called for a national meeting to unseat Kalla after his defeat in the presidential election and the party’s loss in the legislative elections.
“Kalla’s campaign strategy of attacking others is yet to be well-received by Indonesians in general,” member of Golkar’s central executive board Marzuki Darusman told The Jakarta Post.
Kalla was also accused of carelessly choosing Wiranto as his running mate, costing him potential voters.
Kalla’s personal influence was also weaker than the two other candidates, Marzuki said.
“The personal influence of Megawati and Yudhoyono were even bigger than their parties. On the contrary, Kalla has much less influence.”
Marzuki added Golkar would likely accelerate its extraordinary national meeting in one or two months ahead, instead of the previous plan of October in an attempt to hold Kalla responsible for the party’s defeat in both elections.
“Kalla previously promised if he lost in this year’s presidential election he would resign as Golkar Party’s chairman.”
He acknowledged the figure who would likely replace him was the current Coordinating Minister for People’s Welfare Aburizal Bakrie.
“I heard 420 of 440 Golkar’s branches in regencies throughout the nation supported him.
“So we see that our partisans in regions are prepared to replace Kalla’s leadership in Golkar.”
Head of the Research Institute for Democracy and a Prosperous State (Pedoman), Fadjroel Rachman, shared a similar view.
“If Kalla loses his chairmanship and people choose Aburizal Bakrie to become chairman, then it would be very likely for Golkar to come closer to Yudhoyono’s bloc whether in the parliament or the government.”
However, a political expert from the University of Indonesia, Rocky Gerung, reminded that executives from both Golkar and the PDI-P should not be lured by promises of future cabinet seats to maintain the check and balances. (hdt)
