R

ival camps in the Golkar Party continue to point fingers amid efforts to resolve a months-long power struggle that will determine the fate of the party'€™s participation in the upcoming local elections.

Aburizal Bakrie and Agung Laksono, the two leaders who have been vying for control of the party, have each met with Vice President Jusuf Kalla to try and find a way out of the impasse and ensure Golkar competes in the 269 local elections set to take place on Dec. 9 this year.

Kalla, a former Golkar chairman, has proposed a four-point agreement that would create a temporary truce ahead of the elections.

The proposed points are to put the party'€™s interests before personal ones; to set up a joint committee to recruit candidates to contest the elections; to jointly prepare selected candidates who will represent both groups to contest the elections; and to agree on a single-party chairmanship to endorse nominees for the General Elections Commission (KPU).

Aburizal and Agung have each expressed support for the temporary truce so that Golkar is not disqualified from the elections, with both citing the proposal as a '€œfeasible path forward'€.

However, both are reluctant to compromise on the fourth requirement regarding the determination of a temporary official chairmanship, as conflict over the chairmanship of the party has been at the heart of the dispute from the start.

The Agung camp has filed an appeal of the Jakarta State Administrative Court (PTUN) verdict that revoked a decree from the Law and Human Rights Ministry recognizing Agung'€™s chairmanship.

The verdict also returned the party chairmanship to the central board committee established by the 2009 national congress in Riau, in which Aburizal is chairman.

'€œWe had earlier asked them [the Aburizal camp] to reconcile, but they turned down our proposal and instead insisted on taking legal action upon the case. And now they suddenly are willing to settle the dispute,'€ Yorrys Raweyai, an Agung-supporter, said after a closed-door meeting with Presidential chief of staff Luhut Binsar Panjaitan at the latter'€™s office on Monday.

Yorrys'€™ colleague, Ace Hasan Syadzily, echoed such suspicions on a separate occasion, emphasizing that it was natural for the Agung camp to voice skepticism over the rival camp'€™s decision to reconcile after having repeatedly refusing the idea.

'€œThe Aburizal camp ignored all correspondence [regarding reconciliation] with us. However, we still engaged members of its executive board elected in Bali to join us,'€ said Ace.

The KPU earlier said it would not meddle in the internal affairs of Golkar, but would require a decree for the party'€™s participation in the election.

Another round of negotiations between supporters of the two camps at Kalla'€™s residence on Monday night resulted in a planned meeting between Agung and Aburizal this week, to be held at the party headquarters in Slipi, West Jakarta.

Separately, the Aburizal camp slammed the rival faction for questioning their goodwill to end the fight, saying such a response may torpedo the ongoing peace talks.

'€œ[Kalla] expects us to achieve an agreement for the sake of the party and the cadres. Don'€™t think that our willingness [to reconcile] aims to secure the interests of certain individuals,'€ said Tantowi Yahya, a supporter of Aburizal.