M

oney and politics have always been perfect, inseparable bedfellows, with entrepreneurs aligning themselves with political parties, particularly ones with a greater chance of winning the presidency.

But ahead of the 2014 presidential election, businesspeople in Indonesia are facing a dilemma and uncertainties in figuring out which candidate deserves their sponsorship and endorsement.

Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) chairman Sofjan Wanandi said many businesspeople were opting to hold back their political endorsement until the April 9 legislative election, since they considered the nomination of the current presidential candidates premature.

'€œBusinesses will only determine their stance once certainty in presidential candidate nominations has been reached [...] Once their presidential nominations have been made official, then we can make our decisions,'€ Sofjan said recently.

The Presidential Election Law requires political parties to obtain a minimum 25 percent of the popular vote or 20 percent of seats in the House of Representatives to be entitled to nominate a presidential candidate. Many surveys, however, predicted that none of the 12 contesting political parties would clinch more than 25 percent of the vote in the legislative election.

The Golkar Party has announced the presidential candidacy of its chairman, Aburizal Bakrie, while the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party and the People'€™s Conscience (Hanura) Party have nominated Lt. Gen. (ret) Prabowo Subianto and Gen. (ret) Wiranto respectively as their presidential contenders.

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) has chosen to remain silent, while the ruling Democratic Party (PD) is still looking for Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono'€™s replacement through party convention.

As for the next presidency, Sofjan said businesses hoped for better leadership capacity coming from the new president, an attribute that had been missing from Yudhoyono'€™s leadership. '€œWe no longer need a leader who cannot make any decisions like the current president. The decisions must also be based on common sense, not political reasons,'€ Sofjan said.

The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), has similar expectations. Kadin deputy chairman Bambang Sujagad said businesses hoped that the new president would have enough decency and competence to do his or her task as the state'€™s leader.

Many recent surveys have placed PDI-P politician and Jakarta Governor Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo as the most popular candidate in the upcoming presidential election. Still, PDI-P chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri has remained reluctant to endorse his candidacy. Party insiders say Megawati still has an ambition to run for a third time as a presidential candidate if her party manages to win more than 30 percent of the vote.

Such a claim, however, was denied by PDI-P politician Eva Kusuma Sundari. She said Megawati only wanted to be cautious by not rushing the announcement of Jokowi'€™s nomination.

Despite her understanding of Megawati'€™s reluctance, Eva said it would be better for the official candidacy of Jokowi to be made sooner than later.

'€œI believe that it would be the best for all to announce Jokowi'€™s official appointment as PDI-P presidential candidate in early March. This would benefit the party and give more certainties to all stakeholders, including businesses, about the potential political landscape during the 2014 presidential election,'€ Eva said.

Unlike the PDI-P, which is witnessing the increasing interest of entrepreneurs in joining the party'€™s financial supporters, a contrasting phenomenon is engulfing the PD.

'€œThere'€™s no longer big [financial] support coming from the public like we saw ahead of the 2009 general election. Now, we practically rely on the donations of our politicians and lawmakers,'€ PD politician Ikhsan Modjo said.

'€” Hasyim Widhiarto contributed to this article.