T

he internal rift within the Golkar Party came to a head on Tuesday when a meeting of the party's political faction in the House of Representatives decided to give party chairman Aburizal Bakrie the final say on the fate of House Deputy Speaker Priyo Budi Santoso.

Golkar Central Board member Yorrys Raweyai said after the meeting that the party faction had deferred to Aburizal regarding the future of Priyo within the party.

'We have discussed Priyo's inappropriate statement and we will bring our conclusion to the chairman [Aburizal],' he told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

In what could be seen as an indication of a rift in Golkar, Priyo earlier said the disclosure of his alleged role in the Koran procurement graft case was cooked up by rival politicians within Golkar.

The senior Golkar politician also hinted that a number of Golkar executives had attempted to undermine his influence within the party and planned to unseat him from his House deputy speaker position.

Priyo landed in hot water following the revelation from the Jakarta Corruption Court that he was alleged to be involved in a graft case surrounding the Religious Affairs Ministry's Koran procurement.

He was accused of asking for a 1 percent kickback from the project.

The court has sentenced fellow Golkar politician Zulkarnaen Djabar to 15 years in prison for his role in the case.

The court found Zulkarnaen and Dendy Prasetya guilty of accepting Rp 14 billion (US$1.42 million) in bribes from Abdul Kadir Alaydrus, director of PT Sinergi Pustaka Indonesia and commissioner of PT Adhi Aksara Abadi, to rig the bidding process of the projects so that both companies could win the Koran tender. The value of the Koran procurement projects were Rp 22 billion in 2011 and Rp 50 billion in 2012.

Priyo was also criticized last week following his visit to graft defendant Fahd el Fouz at Sukamiskin detention center in Bandung.

Yorrys said although the prison visit was justified given Priyo's position as a lawmaker, it was unethical because he had visited a graft suspect that had tainted the reputation of Golkar.

Separately, Aburizal's spokesman Lalu Mara Satria Wangsa said Priyo's visit was poorly timed.

Lalu also denied that the faction meeting was to discuss the future of Priyo.

'There's no such thing as a faction meeting. We only focused on finding the strategy to win the next legislative and presidential election,' Lalu told the Post.

Also on Tuesday, the House ethics council said that it would summon Priyo to explain his visit to Sukamiskin detention center.

A member of the ethics council Ali Maschan Moesa said the visit could have been designed by Priyo to further his personal interest.

'There is an indication that the visit was related to his personal political interest. We would give a penalty if that turned out to be true, but it will depend on the severity of the violation,' he said.

Ali said if evidence could be found that the visit was personal in nature, Priyo could face penalties ranging from reprimand to dismissal from his current position.

Golkar, the second largest political party in the House, has been split into a number of factions, some of which are uncomfortable with the party's decision to nominate party chairman Aburizal as its presidential candidate for the next election in 2014.

Priyo and his supporters have been considered a 'sleeper cell' within the party, hesitant to support Aburizal's candidacy. (koi)