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Aburizal balks at proposal to quit his bid

In response to mounting calls for his early exit from the presidential race, tycoon and Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie has vowed to press ahead with his campaign

Bagus BT Saragih and Margareth S. Aritonang (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Fri, December 21, 2012

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Aburizal balks at proposal to quit his bid

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n response to mounting calls for his early exit from the presidential race, tycoon and Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie has vowed to press ahead with his campaign.

Aburizal rejected the proposal made by the chairman of the party’s board of advisors, Akbar Tandjung, who said he should drop out of the race if he failed to boost his electability rating within the next six months.

Aburizal’s spokesman, Lalu Mara Satria Wangsa, said the decision on Aburizal’s candidacy was a formal party decision made at a national meeting to which all party members had to defer.

“Now is the time for all party members to work for Aburizal’s presidential bid in 2014 and help Golkar win the legislative election,” Lalu Mara, who is also the party’s deputy secretary-general, said on Thursday.

Last week, Akbar, who is himself a former party chairman, threatened to annul Aburizal’s nomination by July 2013.

He said he was not convinced that Aburizal would gain in popularity before the presidential election.

Akbar, who is also considered the de facto leader of opposition within the party, sent an official letter to Aburizal to deliver the message.

“The letter contains a suggestion. We must listen to suggestions from the board of advisors but we don’t have to act on them,” Lalu Mara said.

Contacted separately, Akbar said there was growing pessimism among party members, particularly at local levels, about the prospect of Aburizal being successful in 2014.

“I have met with local party branch members who are disappointed because they were left out of the last national party meeting that resulted in Aburizal’s nomination,” he said.

Akbar insisted, however, that his letter was not intended to cause a rift within the party.

“The central executive board should respond to the letter positively because it is for the sake of this party. We, the board of advisors, are obliged to provide advice that we think necessary. So, our suggestion to evaluate the nomination in July 2013 merits serious discussion,” said Akbar.

Priyo Budi Santoso, a Golkar executive and also deputy speaker at the House of Representatives, suggested that Aburizal and Akbar should have met to discuss the nomination issue.

“The letter from the board of advisors is positive in the sense that they want total consolidation within the party so that we can win the 2014 election,” Priyo said.

J Kristiadi, a senior analyst at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said that Aburizal’s decision to plow ahead with his candidacy could inflict serious damage to party unity.

“A political party is not a robot. You need to accommodate different aspirations if you want your party to be big. There is no such thing as a “truth” in politics; everything is a potential option,” he said.

Aburizal has consistently found himself at the bottom of opinion polls determining the most electable candidates for 2014, although Golkar remains one of the country’s most popular political parties.

A significant factor contributing to Aburizal’s poor showing in the opinion polls is the ongoing mudflow disaster in Sidoarjo, East Java, which was allegedly caused by improper drilling by PT Lapindo Brantas, an exploration company partly controlled by the Bakrie family.

The disaster displaced thousands and has cost the government trillions of rupiah in recovery measures.

The conflict between Akbar and Aburizal is only the latest in a series of spats within Golkar.

Previously, Aburizal’s camp responded with hostility to an announcement by Aburizal’s predecessor, Jusuf Kalla, that he might run on a presidential ticket alongside Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairwoman and former president Megawati Soekarnoputri in 2014.

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