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Golkar foes make truce
Party games: Vice President and senior Golkar Party member Jusuf Kalla (center) is flanked by Agung Laksono (left) and Aburizal Bakrie, leaders of rival camps in the party, in Jakarta on Saturday
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Party games: Vice President and senior Golkar Party member Jusuf Kalla (center) is flanked by Agung Laksono (left) and Aburizal Bakrie, leaders of rival camps in the party, in Jakarta on Saturday. (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama) (center) is flanked by Agung Laksono (left) and Aburizal Bakrie, leaders of rival camps in the party, in Jakarta on Saturday. (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)
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span class="inline inline-none">Party games: Vice President and senior Golkar Party member Jusuf Kalla (center) is flanked by Agung Laksono (left) and Aburizal Bakrie, leaders of rival camps in the party, in Jakarta on Saturday. (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)
After months of bickering the two factions in the Golkar Party agreed Saturday to sign a temporary peace agreement to make sure that the country's second-largest political party would be able to run in the upcoming local elections.
Following a prolonged leadership dispute between two camps led by Aburizal Bakrie and Agung Laksono, Golkar was on the verge of losing the opportunity to nominate candidates for Indonesia's first-ever concurrent local elections for regional heads, scheduled for Dec. 6.
Due to disagreements over who would take over the party last year, Aburizal and Agung were separately elected as Golkar chairman in two different national congresses and have since competed against each other in legal disputes to secure governmental recognition of their leadership.
This schism made it impossible for the party to offer official endorsement to regional candidates to register with the Provincial General Elections Commission (KPUD) during the registration period July 26-28.
After negotiations facilitated by Vice President Jusuf Kalla over the past few weeks, Aburizal and Agung agreed on Saturday to reconcile.
In a meeting held at the Vice President's official residence in Central Jakarta, Aburizal and Agung, along with their respective secretaries-generals, Idrus Marham and Zainudin Amali, signed a four-point reconciliation document that says the two factions will prioritize a few key goals: participating in the upcoming local elections, forming a joint candidate-selection team, endorsing candidates who meet certain criteria and ensuring that the documents to nominate Golkar candidates are signed by the party leadership recognized by the General Elections Commission (KPU).
In his opening remarks before the signing, Kalla said the reconciliation was necessary to save Golkar from downfall.
'We should see Golkar not only as the country's past but also its future. This meeting will unite us again under a mutual platform,' he said.
Both Aburizal and Agung, who were accompanied by dozens of their supporters during the meeting, welcomed the agreement but insisted that their reconciliation was 'temporary' and for 'limited' purposes only.
'The [leadership] dispute hasn't ended yet as the basic problem still exists. Just let the court settle it,' Agung said.
Aburizal had a similar view, adding that the agreement would at least secure the party's participation in local elections despite the ongoing leadership dispute.
'With this agreement, we are expecting to see our candidates able to immediately sign up [with the KPUD],' he said.
According to the 2015 Local Elections Law, to be able to nominate a candidate for a local election in a particular region, a political party, or a coalition of political parties, must control at least 20 percent of the seats in the Regional Legislative Council (DPRD), or garner at least 25 percent of the total votes in a given region.
On May 18, following an appeal by Aburizal's camp at the Jakarta State Administrative Court (PTUN) over the issuance of a decree from the law and human rights minister, which recognized Agung's leadership, the court invalidated the decree.
The ministry responded by filing an appeal with the Supreme Court.
Both camps, however, said that the absence of a final and binding court ruling on Golkar leadership would not hamper the party's joint efforts to select candidates for local elections.
'For example, we will use a popularity survey as an objective tool to assess the prospective candidates,' former minister Sharif Cicip Sutarjo, one of Aburizal's deputy chairmen, told The Jakarta Post.
Earlier on Saturday, KPU chairman Husni Kamil Manik reiterated that the KPU would not postpone the kickoff of the simultaneous local elections to accommodate the participation of Golkar and the United Development Party, another political party that has been struggling with a prolonged leadership dispute.
'Election organizers cannot be blamed should the parties fail to participate in the elections. That could happen if they themselves do not want to settle their own conflict,' he said.
University of Indonesia political observer Chusnul Mariyah, meanwhile, applauded the efforts of Golkar elites to reconcile their differences for the good of the party.
'The competing factions within Golkar must learn how to manage differences without violence or establishing splinter groups,' she said.
'It is a common thing for any political party to have factions. Members of the factions, however, must put the interests of the political party first.'
