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Megawati is my toughest rival: Aburizal

Golkar Party chairman and presidential candidate Aburizal Bakrie says the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and its chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri will be Golkar’s toughest challengers in the upcoming legislative and presidential elections, in April and July respectively

Bagus BT Saragih (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Sat, February 15, 2014

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Megawati is my toughest rival: Aburizal

G

olkar Party chairman and presidential candidate Aburizal Bakrie says the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and its chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri will be Golkar'€™s toughest challengers in the upcoming legislative and presidential elections, in April and July respectively.

Aburizal has also suggested that Golkar and PDI-P could form an alliance in the next government even though he would have to compete with Megawati in the presidential race.

When asked whether Megawati and Jakarta Governor Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo would be his toughest rival for the presidency, Aburizal said, '€œMegawati, because she has a mass of loyal supporters and she is the daughter of [former president] Sukarno.'€

Aburizal denied he was trying to encourage the PDI-P to endorse Megawati rather than Jokowi. '€œThe debate is currently about popularity versus capability. I believe the voters will do the right thing on polling day. They won'€™t rely on surveys when it comes to who is the right person to lead Indonesia. Past form is much more important than popularity,'€ Aburizal told The Jakarta Post during a recent interview.

In 2012, Golkar named Aburizal its presidential candidate, making it the first party to declare its presidential nomination.

The PDI-P, on the other hand, has yet to officially announce its presidential candidate, despite surveys showing that Jokowi would be virtually unbeatable.

Megawati, who has been mandated with the sole authority to name the PDI-P'€™s presidential candidate, may decide to run for a third time, according to PDI-P insiders.

Once a popular figure, Megawati now lags behind Jokowi in surveys on potential presidential candidates, with some even putting her below Aburizal. Aburizal himself has been struggling to gain traction against Jokowi and the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party'€™s Lt. Gen. (ret) Prabowo Subianto who regularly feature in the top two positions in opinion polls on presidential candidates.

When asked whether he believed Megawati would run again, Aburizal referred to the former president'€™s recent statement in the Mata Najwa political-discussion program broadcast by MetroTV. In the show, Megawati said, '€œI know Jokowi has been described as unbeatable in many surveys, but I have told him not to get too big-headed about that'€.

'€œOf course I don'€™t want to speculate what that statement infers,'€ Aburizal said.

Aburizal also confirmed a recent statement by senior Golkar politician Hajriyanto Thohari saying that Golkar had been considering building a long-term coalition with the PDI-P.

'€œGenerally, today'€™s political parties have similar platforms as there is no longer any party that adopts a purely religious ideology, not even the PKS [Prosperous and Justice Party]. However, if Golkar is asked which parties have the most similar platform, the answer would be the PDI-P and the Democratic Party [PD],'€ he said.

Aburizal, however, suggested that a coalition with the PDI-P would be a more favorable option given the PD'€™s plummeting electability.

Analysts have previously suggested that a Golkar-PDI-P coalition would be unlikely because both parties would insist on nominating their own presidential candidates.

But Aburizal said that such a coalition could be formed after the presidential election, citing Golkar'€™s political maneuver in 2009 as an example.

'€œIn the 2009 presidential race, Golkar was not in a coalition with the PD as we both had our own presidential candidates. But Golkar is now in the government coalition. So, why not [make a similar move with the PDI-P] in 2014?'€ he said.

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