T

he political parties it the House of Representatives said they were not worried by the emergence of new parties wishing to run in 2014 elections, which were mostly formed by former members and claimed to have support from people dissatisfied with the existing parties.

The stalwart Golkar Party faces probably one of its strongest splinter groups, the Nasdem Party, which is affiliated with the National Democrats, a mass organization founded by media mogul Surya Paloh, a former Golkar Party patron who lost his bid to chair the party in 2009 to Aburizal Bakrie.

Many former and active Golkar politicians such as Syamsul Muarif, Yogyakarta Governor Sri Sultan Hemengkubuwono X and Ferry Mursyidan Baldan are active in the organization. Politicians from other political parties have also joined, though they have not yet announced intentions to join Nasdem.

Golkar chairman Aburizal said recently that Nasdem was no threat to his party.

“For years, prominent figures from the Golkar Party have left and formed new parties. Some of them even became the leaders. But, as you can see today, this party is getting stronger and stronger,” he said.

Another new party challenging Golkar is the National Republic Party (Nasrep), which was co-founded by Hutomo “Tommy” Mandala Putra, son of the late president Soeharto.

Tommy was also a Golkar politician who campaigned to be the party’s presidential candidate.

Golkar said Nasrep’s use of pro-Soeharto sentiment as a gimmick to lure voters would never work in today’s Indonesia.

“It will probably end up like the PKPB [The Concern for the Nation Functional Party],” he said, referring to the party that tapped Siti Hariyanto Indra Rukmana, Soeharto’s daughter, as a presidential candidate but failed to gain significant support during the 2004 elections.

The National Awakening Party (PKB) claimed that the Indonesian National Sovereignty Party (PKBI), a new party led by Zanuba Arifah Chafsoh, aka Yenny Wahid, would take many of its constituents.

Yenny, the daughter of the late former president Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid, claimed that the party was supported by many of Gus Dur’s followers who left the PKB. But PKB lawmaker Marwan Jafar said it would be difficult for the PKBI to gain supports.

“A political party with vast experience is more convincing than a newly formed party,” he said, adding that the followers of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the country’s biggest Muslim organization and the PKB’s main constituents, would remain loyal to his party.

PKB chairman Muhaimin Iskandar said his party would remain solid despite the presence the PKBI.

“The new party will have zero effect on the PKB. Thus, I have nothing to worry about right now. It is within every person’s right to build themselves a political party,” he said.

But history has proved otherwise. The rift between Yenny and Muhaimin over the PKB leadership has cost the party votes, dropping from 12 percent in the 2004 polls to 2.6 percent in the 2009 polls.

Achmad Mubarok, a member of the patron board of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party, said the new parties would not last, as the new electoral regulations had been designated to reduce the number of parties.

“We just want to pursue our target to establish a simple multi-party system. This is for the sake of national interest,” he said. “Democracy can run well with a small number of political parties.”

Mubarok referred to the 2011 Political Parties Law, stipulating that a party must have branch offices in all 33 provinces, 75 percent of the cities and regencies in each province and 50 percent of the districts in each city and regency before it could run.

The legislative election bill, set to be endorsed this year, also stipulates that the qualifying threshold would be at 3 percent, up from 2.5 percent in the 2008 law.

Mubarok said he would not oppose the new parties’ emergence, but added that, “They will be ‘naturally eliminated’.”

Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician, Pramono Anung, also a House Deputy Speaker, said his party would not worry about the new parties. “Go ahead. That’s your constitutional right [to form parties]. We have no problem with that,” he said.

However, Pramono, added that new regulations might make elections merrier, as the House was set to raise the legislative threshold for the upcoming elections.

“Establishing a political party is a serious matter. Be prepared so you are ready to compete.”