After experiencing a series of losses in both the legislative and presidential elections, members of the Golkar Party are likely to see a leadership regime replacement in the near future.
To date, there are two party figures who have announced their readiness to put up candidacies as party chief, an issue that will be discussed at the upcoming special party meeting scheduled this October.
The two figures are a member of the party's board of advisors, Aburizal Bakrie, also known as Ical, and a young lawmaker from Golkar, Yuddy Chrisnandi.
Speaking in Blitar, East Java, Aburizal Bakrie vowed he would not take up a new Cabinet position but would focus on improving Golkar's performance if he were elected as the next chairman.
"I would rather be outside the administration and focus solely on improving the party's performance. However, I would not forbid any party member who gets appointed as a minister in the new administration, to take the position," he said, as quoted by Antara state news agency Monday, referring to the administration of the incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who has just been declared the winner of the recent presidential election.
Under his regime, Ical said Golkar would not play the role of the opposition to the new administration. "But we would stay critical of the new administration," he promised.
Commenting on Ical's remarks, head of the campaign team for Yuddy Chrisnandi, Zainal Bintang, acknowledged he was pessimistic that Golkar would be able to restore its image or garner more voters in the times ahead if the party was led by Ical.
"The next leadership should go all out to restore Golkar's political image by working harder on efforts to improve the people's welfare. And, in my opinion, this would not happen if the party was led by Ical," he told The Jakarta Post.
"Therefore, what we need is a new leadership that is already believed by the public to be the one who would be able to transform political promises into reality. All of these requirements are seen in Yuddy," Bintang said.
He declared Yuddy's track record, as a young, relatively clean and critical lawmaker would be able to attract followers within the party, those ready to help improve the party's performance.
"Thus I am convinced that party cadres who wish to see Golkar regain victory in the next general election would vote for Yuddy," he said.
Political expert from the University of Indonesia Maswadi Rauf, however, had a different opinion, saying Ical's faction has apparently garnered more trust from the party's stakeholders.
Such a position, he said, has given Ical's camp more chance of winning the competition than that of Yuddy.
"Many Golkar cadres perceive the series of recent losses as caused by Jusuf Kalla's regime in which Yuddy is involved, and therefore these cadres need to rebuild their confidence by choosing the opposite faction, which is Ical's," he said.
Gaining only 14.53 percent in the recent legislative election has made Golkar the second largest political party after the Democratic Party, which secured first position by gaining 20.85 percent of the vote. Many Golkar cadres said it was quite a significant loss, as the party had managed to secure more than 20 percent of votes in the 2004 general election and was the largest faction in the House of Representatives.
Many of them believed the chairmanship of Jusuf Kalla should have been held responsible for the loss and therefore suggested Kalla be immediately replaced by someone who could bring Golkar back to victory. Among those cadres were the party's executives such as Ical, former chairman Akbar Tandjung, Muladi and dozens of the party's regional chairmen.
Ical was viewed then as the one who could restore Golkar's victorious position for two main reasons - as an experienced senior member of Golkar and the fact he owns the resources which would enable him to do his utmost to re-establish Golkar's image.
However, for those who oppose him, Ical is considered a part of Golkar's old regime who would not be able to rebuild the party's image. These cadres, mostly young, consider that it is time for the young generation to lead and direct the party to put all their efforts into improving people's welfare.
