Senior Golkar Party politician Agung Laksono, whose party leadership was recently endorsed by the Law and Human Rights Ministry, kicked off a series of meetings with leaders of political parties within the ruling Great Indonesia Coalition, a move aimed at securing a place in the coalition.

Agung and his entourage met with NasDem Party chairman Surya Paloh on Wednesday and are expected to hold talks with Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairperson Megawati Soekarnoputri this weekend.

Agung met Surya at NasDem'€™s headquarters in Central Jakarta. The two spent more than 30 minutes in their morning meeting praising each other for their roles in '€œsolving the country'€™s mounting problems'€.

Surya personally congratulated Agung for his chairmanship, telling him that he remained a part of Golkar and '€œconstantly followed the development within the party'€.

Surya was a member of Golkar for 43 years before leaving the party to establish NasDem in 2011.

Before wrapping up the meeting, Surya offered to partner with Golkar in setting up a program aimed at providing political education for members of both parties in 34 provinces.

Agung is expected to meet with leaders of other parties within the ruling coalition within the week.

Agung, however, had '€œinformally'€ met with Megawati at her private residence on Jl. Teuku Umar, Central Jakarta, on Monday, one day before Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna H. Laoly, a PDI-P politician, announced the government'€™s recognition of Agung'€™s leadership.

Speaking after his meeting with Surya, Agung said the meeting was aimed at building '€œgood communication among parties that support the government'€, although he was quick to add that it did not necessarily mean Golkar would formally join the ruling coalition of President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo.

While Agung and members of his camp made their overtures, the faction of Aburizal Bakrie, on Wednesday, filed a complaint with the National Police against the opposing faction, accusing Agung and his supporters of falsifying documents to get official recognition from the government.

Idrus Marham, a secretary-general of the Aburizal camp, filed the report with the National Police'€™s detective division.

'€œWe have reported 133 cases of forgery. In some cases signatures were forged, fake letterheads were used and papers were signed by legislative candidates from different political parties,'€ Idrus said.

He also displayed a document used by Agung'€™s camp to apply for formal recognition that was signed by RB Ridwan, a party member who passed away in 2012.

Idrus said that Aburizal'€™s faction decided to file the police report after learning that Agung would not allow an opposition faction to exist in the party.

'€œPak ARB [Aburizal] has already asked us not to start a conflict between two groups because we are one big family, but it turns out that the other faction does not want us in the family,'€ he said.

Idrus said that the police report was filed directly with detective division chief Comr. Gen. Budi Waseso.

When asked whether they would file a report against Yasonna, Idrus said that his faction had yet to decide.

'€œWe will let the detective division chief investigate the case before we decide to file a report against the minister,'€ he said.

Responding to the move by Aburizal'€™s camp, Agung'€™s deputy, Priyo Budi Santoso, pledged that his camp would embrace members of the opposition camp as long as they were loyal to Agung.

As for Aburizal and senior politician Akbar Tanjung, Priyo said that they could be part of the party'€™s central board.

'€œBoth figures will always be part of Golkar and we will set up an additional division within the party to host them both,'€ he said.

'€” Ina Parlina contributed to this report

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