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e Golkar Party is clearly moving to the brink of division after two factions announced their separate plans to hold a congress to elect their own party chairman. Chairman Aburizal Bakrie has insisted on a snap congress in Bali this Sunday, while his contenders announced on Tuesday the formation of a presidium to rescue the party and hold the congress next January in Jakarta.

A mass brawl between rival groups of Golkar'€™s youth wing, the Young Generation, in front of the party'€™s headquarters in West Jakarta on Tuesday represents the deep-seated polarization of the country'€™s second-largest party since it lost the legislative election in April and failed to contest the presidential race three months later. Worse, for the first time in its history, Golkar has to stay out of the power center and has been '€œdemoted'€ to an opposition party.

The imminent split is therefore an accumulation of disappointment among party members with the ruling elite'€™s sub-par performance both in the legislative and presidential elections. Golkar has never secured a presidential seat since the fall of the New Order in 1998, but at least it played a major role in national politics as part of the ruling government in three elections before 2014.

To many members, Golkar under Aburizal has wasted golden chances to join the government of President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo as its former chairman, Jusuf Kalla, was elected Vice President. Aburizal met with president-elect Jokowi prior to the latter'€™s inauguration and later on with Kalla, but no deal was struck as to whether Golkar would jump ship from the Red-and-White Coalition. Jokowi had even deliberately left two ministerial posts vacant to anticipate Golkar'€™s change of mind.

Known for its pragmatic attitude and appetite for power, Golkar would normally opt to be part of a ruling coalition, as it was under Kalla in 2004-2009 and Aburizal in 2009-2014.

But Aburizal today has guided the party away from power to a point of no return. He effectively controls the Red-and-White Coalition, the opposition force accused of practicing the politics of revenge against the Jokowi government. The protracted standoff between the opposition-dominated legislature and the executive powers cannot be separated from Golkar'€™s role.

The mounting challenge from within, or more precisely a mutiny, is perhaps the reason for Aburizal to fight it out for the party chairmanship. Losing the Golkar chairmanship means Aburizal will no longer wield power vis-à-vis the government and worse will fall victim to possible politicization of his past legal cases should Jokowi have an evil will.

Golkar, however, is facing a serious threat of break-up if Aburizal stubbornly clings on to power despite the multiple failures that he is accountable for. His defiance will only exacerbate the internal rift, or perhaps fuel his rivals to form a breakaway party. The crisis facing Golkar as an asset of the country will be detrimental to Indonesia'€™s democratization.

Only Aburizal'€™s statesmanship will spare the party from this tribulation. His exit from the party chairmanship race would be a true lesson of democracy.