With quick count results confirming his re-election success in a single round, close aides to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono say he is open to the possibility of building a coalition with rival parties.
The head of Yudhoyono’s campaign team, Hatta Radjasa, told journalists Thursday that Yudhoyono might expand his coalition in any new administration to include Vice President Jusuf Kalla’s Golkar Party and former president Megawati Soekarnoputri’s Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).
“That [a coalition with Golkar and PDI-P] could happen. The possibility is always open,” said Hatta, who is also the State Secretary.
“Pak SBY [Yudhoyono] is basically very open to any plans that will lead to Indonesia being an even better country.”
Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party (PD) is currently aligned with 22 other parties, including the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the National Mandate Party (PAN), the United Development Party (PPP) and the National Awakening Party (PKB), four major Islamic parties.
The coalition was formed after the parties signed an agreement mid-May, but prior to that, a
special team from the PD held talks with Golkar and PDI-P executives to explore the possibility of an alignment.
Discussions seemingly collapsed when the three major nationalist parties officially named their own presidential and vice presidential candidates.
The spokesmen for Kalla’s campaign team, Yuddy Chrisnandi, said Golkar would still wait for the official announcement of results from Wednesday’s presidential election by the General Elections Commission (KPU) before deciding whether or not to stay in the government, as the party had traditionally done.
PDI-P’s chief patron and Megawati’s husband, Taufik Kiemas, had said prior to the election that coalition discussions were still undergoing and an agreement was still possible between the PDI-P and other interested parties.
A political analyst from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Lili Romli, said it would most likely be difficult for Golkar to leave the government as it had never been far away from power.
“Golkar may be afraid of becoming an opposition party because it has been supported by businessmen who may run away,” he said.
Lili said, however, that Golkar should be consistent. As it originally decided to leave the incumbent, it should now form an opposition party with the PDI-P and Golkar at the House of Representatives.
“If Golkar chooses to coalesce with SBY, it looks like they are acting in self interest and aiming only for ministerial or other strategic positions,” he said.
Without the presence of Golkar or the PDI-P in the coalition, the PD and its major coalition partners will still form a majority in the House, with a combined 60 percent of the 560 House seats.
Hatta fended off speculation that the PD’s coalition with Islamic parties would leave minority groups marginalized, saying Yudhoyono would stay attached to the “four main pillars” of the country, they being the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia, the country’s ideology of Pancasila, the 1945 Constitution and the country’s “Unity in Diversity” slogan. (ghe)
