Aspirant’s view: Guruh Soekarnoputra (right) makes a point during a discussion on his bid to contest the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairmanship at The Jakarta Post offices, Jakarta, on Thursday. JP/R. Berto Wedhatama
The Sukarno clan will likely to retain control of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) as the two candidates to fight for its top job at the April party congress are both children of the former leader.
Guruh Soekarnoputra, former president Sukarno’s youngest son, said Thursday he would contest the party chairmanship with the support of “a great many” local leaders and challenge his elder sister Megawati Soekarnoputri, who has led the PDI-P since 1993.
A famous contemporary dance choreographer, Guruh promised he would “revolutionize” the party, the third-largest after the Democratic Party and Golkar with 95 seats at the House of Representatives.
“Like any other party, the PDI-P is in a bad shape and will have to be revolutionized to make it a democratic and modern party,” he said during a media visit to The Jakarta Post’s editorial offices.
Guruh, who is also a legislator, said his real mission was to “salvage” the PDI-P from sliding into obscurity as the past three elections had shown.
In 1999, the party won the election by securing 30.6 percent of the House’s 560 seats. It lost to Golkar in 2004 and its parliamentary seats dropped to 19.9 percent. In the 2009 elections, it lost to the Democratic Party and saw its seats drop further to 14 percent.
“I believe that saving the PDI-P also means saving democracy and eventually saving Indonesia from disintegrating,” he said.
Aji Barata, a PDI-P politician who is assisting Guruh in his campaign, said that under the Megawati leadership the party had strayed from its ideals of democracy.
For example, he said, leaders at the grass roots level were not adequately involved in decision making processes, which were dominated by an elite few and Megawati’s inner circle.
“Many aspects of the party’s decision-making are not democratic and need to be corrected,” he said.
“Many local leaders will protest at the upcoming congress because they feel their voices have been disregarded.”
He said the party’s board of executives had issued a decree called SK 435, which favors the party’s elite in decision-making processes at the party’s national congress, while leaving out leaders at the grass roots level.
Guruh said PDI-P members were split with one faction aspiring for change and the other adamant about maintaining the current leadership.
Those supporting the status quo are well-placed politicians, “mostly opportunists” who can exert their power to buy support, he said.
While those yearning for change are mostly less-established politicians who have no financial clout, he added.
Guruh said the PDI-P had been dominated by incompetent politicians evidenced by their failure to make Megawati president even though the party won the 1999 elections.
In that year, the People’s Consultative Assembly elected Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid as president.
In 2002, Gus Dur was impeached and Megawati, then his vice president, replaced him in line with constitutional law.
“The PDI-P has been declining since 1999. It’s a worrying sign that the party is losing shine. A revolution is needed to salvage it,” he said.
