W

hen he decided to run as a lawmaker candidate with the backing of the Gerindra Party in this year'€™s election, Batara Imanuel Sirait knew his first challenge would be his family.

Batara'€™s father, senior politician Sabam Sirait, co-founded the Indonesian Democratic Party, the initial name for the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), in 1973 and later served as a lawmaker for the party for several terms. Batara'€™s elder brother, Maruarar Sirait, is currently a PDI-P lawmaker and member of the party'€™s executive board.

Batara, who joined Gerindra in 2012, said it took almost two years to accustom his family to his political affiliation.

'€œAs a child of a PDI-P co-founder, I do understand that people would question my choice to run for a party other than the PDI-P,'€ the physician-cum-politician told The Jakarta Post in a recent interview.

'€œI told my parents that there'€™s actually no difference between Gerindra and the PDI-P since both are nationalist parties that aim to preserve the implementation of [the state ideology] Pancasila.'€

Batara said he initially had had no interest in politics, but after working at government and private hospitals he realized that he could only improve the country'€™s health care from within.

'€œIt is impossible to improve our public health care without changing the system. And the only way to change the system is by joining a political party,'€ the father of three said.

Batara is running as a lawmaker candidate in the first Jakarta electoral district, while Maruarar is seeking reelection in the ninth West Java electoral district. Their father, meanwhile, is competing to win one of four Regional Representative Council (DPD) seats from the capital in the April 9 legislative election.

The relationship between the PDI-P and Gerindra recently hit a bump in the road after the latter accused PDI-P chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri of breaking her political commitment in 2009 to support the presidential nomination of Gerindra chief patron Lt. Gen. (ret) Prabowo Subianto in this year'€™s presidential election.

Instead of endorsing Prabowo, her running mate in the 2009 presidential election, Megawati nominated Jakarta Governor Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo as the PDI-P'€™s presidential candidate.

Batara, however, said his family would never discuss such a '€œsensitive issue'€ in a family meeting.

'€œFor the sake of our family, we try to avoid sensitive political issues. In the end, we all agree that our relationship is much more important than our [political] affiliation,'€ he said, laughing.

PDI-P lawmaker candidate Wiryanti Sukamdani also shared a similar story.

Although she decided to not join the Golkar Party like her father '€” influential businessman and former Golkar Party lawmaker Sukamdani Sahid Gitosardjono and his brother, Golkar executive Hariyadi Sukamdani '€” Wiryanti said she had no problem with discussing her political aspirations with her family.

'€œOur family actually believes that more than one party is needed to develop the country,'€ she said.

In 2004, both Hariyadi and Wiryanti ran as lawmaker candidates for their respective parties, but only the latter managed to secure a seat in the House of Representatives.

After she failed to secure her reelection bid in the 2009 general election, Wiryanti is now running again as a lawmaker candidate in the same electoral district as Batara.

Hariyadi, according to Wiryanti, has decided to not participate in this year'€™s legislative election so that he can focus on managing the family'€™s hotel conglomerate the Sahid Group.

According to the General Elections Commission (KPU), there are 6,607 legislative candidates competing to win one of 560 House seats offered in 77 electoral districts nationwide. Some of the candidates are related and they are usually members of the same political party.

The Democratic Party (PD), for example, has Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Minister Syariefuddin Hasan and his wife, actress-turned-politician and incumbent lawmaker Inggrid Kansil, running as the party'€™s legislative candidates from two different electoral districts in West Java.

United Development Party (PPP) chairman Suryadharma Ali, meanwhile, has fielded his wife, Wardatul Asriah, also an incumbent lawmaker, and daughter Kartika Yudhisti as the PPP'€™s top lawmaker candidates in the seventh West Java and second Banten electoral districts, repectively.

PPP election campaign team (Bapilu) manager Fernita Darwis, however, gave her assurances that there had been no nepotism in the selection of PPP lawmaker candidates.

'€œWe only chose lawmaker candidates who are willing to work hard to help the PPP win the election,'€ she said.