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Opposition grouping shrinks as Golkar exits
In black and white: Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly (left) along with his director for state affairs Tenan Sitepu show a letter, addressed to the Golkar Partyâs tribunal, during a press conference in Jakarta on Tuesday
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span class="inline inline-center">In black and white: Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly (left) along with his director for state affairs Tenan Sitepu show a letter, addressed to the Golkar Party's tribunal, during a press conference in Jakarta on Tuesday. The government on Tuesday recognized Agung Laksono's faction as the legitimate leadership of the party. JP/Wendra Ajistyatama
The opposition Red-and-White Coalition appears to have lost the Golkar Party, the second- largest faction at the House of Representatives, as Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly officially recognized the leadership of the pro-government Agung Laksono on Tuesday.
Aburizal Bakrie's camp, however, refuses to surrender and has vowed to bring the case to the Jakarta State Administrative High Court (PTUN) in a desperate attempt to maintain Aburizal's position, although he only has a slim chance of winning his case as the government's decision to recognize Agung was based on the decision of a recent Golkar Party tribunal that recognized Agung as the party's chairman in a split decision.
Agung himself was scheduled to meet with leaders of President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo's Great Indonesia Coalition, including the NasDem Party's Surya Paloh and Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri on Tuesday. He strongly indicated that Golkar would join the ruling coalition.
'We hereby declare our exit from the Red-and-White Coalition. We don't want to be attached to any coalitions. We want to create a positive political climate in the country through our partnership with the Jokowi-Kalla administration,' Agung told the press at Golkar's headquarters in Slipi, West Jakarta, on Tuesday.
One of Agung's immediate instructions in his capacity as the new Golkar chairman was to order Golkar's faction at the Jakarta City Council to retract its decision to exercise its right of inquiry to investigate Jakarta Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama.
The recognition of Agung's leadership is also expected to change the formation of leading positions in Golkar's faction at the House, a move that might see the removal of Setya Novanto, who is a known loyalist of Aburizal Bakrie, from his position as house speaker.
Setya declined to comment on the matter.
While Agung declined to discuss why Golkar was not officially joining the Great Indonesia Coalition led by the PDI-P, it is suspected that the veteran politician is waiting for Jokowi to make political concessions to convince Golkar elites to join the ruling coalition.
Jokowi himself is experiencing a growing rift with Megawati, the leader of the ruling coalition. The PDI-P nominated Jokowi in the presidential election, but the former president has not been able to hide her disappointment with Jokowi in public, including with regard to the appointment of the new National Police chief.
The President has reportedly wooed political back up from Prabowo Subianto, the founder of the Gerindra Party, in the case of a withdrawal of support from the PDI-P.
Besides Golkar, another member of the Red-and-White Coalition, the National Mandate Party (PAN), also has been experiencing infighting following the election of Zulkifli Hasan as its chairman until 2020.
Zulkifli has indicated that under his leadership, the party will be more flexible, with the possibility of a political-course change in the next few months.
With the exit of Golkar and PAN from the Red-and-White Coalition, its only remaining members are Gerindra and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).
Although Yasonna, a PDI-P politician, has recognized Agung as Golkar's official chairman, Aburizal has refused to bow to the decision, insisting that his camp will file a lawsuit to challenge the decision.
'The Agung camp has temporarily won. But we will challenge it,' Aburizal told a press conference in response to Yasonna's decision.
'We will also file a lawsuit against the law and human rights minister as he used the problematic ruling to justify the decision' the business tycoon added.
