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Rival camp may forge opposition

President-elect Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s camp continued on Monday to solicit support from members of Prabowo Subianto’s Red-and-White Coalition ahead of his inauguration in October

Bagus BT Saragih and Margareth S. Aritonang (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Tue, August 26, 2014 Published on Aug. 26, 2014 Published on 2014-08-26T09:25:44+07:00

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Rival camp may forge opposition

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resident-elect Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo'€™s camp continued on Monday to solicit support from members of Prabowo Subianto'€™s Red-and-White Coalition ahead of his inauguration in October.

Senior Golkar Party member Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, who went against his party to support the Jokowi-Jusuf Kalla ticket, said there was a chance that his party, currently still in the Red-and-White Coalition, would follow him in supporting the president-elect.

'€œBut I don'€™t know when, I cannot give an answer considering the political turbulence within the party,'€ said Luhut, who also serves as an adviser to Jokowi'€™s transition team. '€œ[Golkar'€™s political shift] could occur before Jokowi'€™s inauguration or after. Anything is possible.'€

Jokowi recently said there was a possibility that the ruling Democratic Party and the National Mandate Party (PAN), whose chairman Hatta Rajasa was Prabowo'€™s running mate in the July 9 presidential election, could switch sides, along with Golkar, the second-biggest party based on the April 9 legislative election.

Golkar chairman Aburizal Bakrie gathered 31 of 33 heads of provincial chapters at his residence in Menteng, Central Jakarta, on Monday and claimed to have earned their support to maintain his leadership, which is to end in 2015, dismissing efforts from members who wanted to unseat Aburizal this year in an attempt to join Jokowi'€™s party coalition.

Other factions who disagreed with Aburizal'€™s decision to support Prabowo in the presidential election have tried to push for an extraordinary national meeting to elect a new chairman this year.

'€œYou see, almost all provincial chapter heads are here. If you want a premature congress, you will need endorsement from at least two-thirds of all 33 provincial chapters,'€ Aburizal said.

Luhut said that the Democratic Party and PAN were closer to joining Jokowi'€™s coalition than Golkar.

'€œJokowi will meet with [Democratic Party chairman] President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Bali on Wednesday. It'€™s not impossible for the meeting to have an impact [on the coalition matter],'€ he said.

PAN, according to Luhut, would likely follow whatever stance Yudhoyono took as it often followed the Democrats'€™ political maneuvers.

Despite winning the legislative election, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), which leads Jokowi'€™s coalition, along with its three supporting political parties, only secured 207 or slightly more than a third of the 560 seats at the House of Representatives.

Jokowi'€™s new government may see an uphill battle as Prabowo'€™s Red-and-White Coalition, which has pocketed the remainder of the House seats, could sustain opposition against Jokowi in the House.

Luhut said Jokowi would certainly need additional members in his coalition. With the Democratic Party'€™s 61 seats and PAN'€™s 49, Jokowi could secure the majority of House seats with the hope of gaining legislative support for his programs and policies during his term.

PDI-P deputy secretary-general Ahmad Basarah remains optimistic that Golkar will join the coalition before October, given the fact that vice president-elect Kalla still holds Golkar membership.

'€œInternal dynamics within Golkar will intensify over the next few weeks. We'€™ll see,'€ he said.

Also on Monday, NasDem Party chairman Surya Paloh said that he had been communicating with executives of parties in Prabowo'€™s coalition. The media mogul, however, refused to elaborate on the talks.

'€œInformal and individual messages [from members of Prabowo'€™s coalition] were sent to me saying that we actually share support for Jokowi-Kalla,'€ he said.

Democratic Party executive chairman Syariefuddin Hasan denied his party had any plans to join Jokowi'€™s coalition. '€œIf any Democratic Party member is asked to be a Cabinet member, he or she must get permission from the chairman [Yudhoyono] first. But I believe that our chairman would not grant the permission.'€

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