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ritics have lambasted what they deemed as political intervention from Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly in the internal affairs of the Golkar Party and the United Development Party (PPP) that has resulted in leadership crises in both of the parties.

A political communication expert from the University of Indonesia (UI), Effendi Ghazali, said Yasonna, a senior politician from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), could have an ulterior motive to create instability within parties in the Red and White Coalition.

Effendi said that Yasonna should not hold a position that gave him authority over other political parties.

'€œMembers of political parties should not occupy such a high-level official position,'€ Effendi said on Saturday.

Law No. 2/2011 on political parties stipulates that the law and human rights minister has the authority to register and officiate the leadership of a political party.

Late in December last year, the Law and Human Rights Ministry revoked a decree previously recognizing the leadership of Agung Laksono, who was elected in a Golkar national meeting in Ancol, Jakarta, in December 2014. The ministry, however, did not publicly announce that the camp of Agung'€™s rival, Aburizal Bakrie, is now in charge of the party.

Earlier this week, the ministry made a similar move by revoking a ministerial decree that recognized Muhammad Romahurmuziy as leader of the PPP, after he was elected chairman in a national party congress in October 2014. The ministry, however, failed to recognize the presence of a rival camp within the PPP led by Djan Faridz.

The revocations followed the Supreme Court'€™s decision to reject the chairmanship of Agung'€™s camp and Romahurmuziy'€™s camp.

Effendi said that Yasonna could in fact implement a temporary solution to the leadership crisis faced both by the PPP and Golkar, simply by granting the Golkar chairmanship to Aburizal, who was elected at the party'€™s 2009 national meeting in Riau, and the PPP chairmanship to Suryadharma Ali, who was reelected at the national meeting in Bandung in 2011, before the two parties hold a national congress to vote for new leadership.

Yunarto Wijaja, a political analyst from Jakarta-based think tank Charta Politika, blamed Yasonna for being too slow in responding to the Golkar and PPP leadership disputes.

'€œThe only thing that the minister can do now is use his discretionary power to extend the term of the leadership chosen at the Riau congress [for Golkar] and recognize the PPP leadership elected at the Bandung congress,'€ Yunarto said.

Such a decision would give rival camps in both parties time to prepare a national congress that would elect new party leadership, which Yunarto deemed as the best possible solution.

The ministry shrugged off accusations that it was meddling in political parties'€™ internal affairs, saying that it only had the authority to examine administrative documents of the current management structure of parties.

'€œWe have to examine it step by step. All things require a process. People need to be patient,'€ said the ministry'€™s director general of legal administration, Aidir Amin Daud.

Meanwhile, the camp of Romahurmuziy has called off its decision to nominate current Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim as PPP'€™s interim chairman. Lukman was elected as party deputy chairman during the Bandung congress and could automatically occupy the chairman position because party chairman Suryadharma Ali is now a suspect in a graft trial.

'€œWe will have further discussion with other party members, because we want to come up with the very best solution,'€ Romahurmuziy said.

Romahurmuziy said that he would also convene a national meeting later this month and that he had invited Djan'€™s faction to join the meeting.

PPP secretary general Achmad Dimyati Natakusumah, a member of Djan'€™s camp, claimed that the meeting was illegal, as the chairmanship legally belonged to Djan.

'€œThe Supreme Court is the highest court and it has legally granted the chairmanship to Djan. Recognition from the Law and Human Rights Minister is just an administrative matter,'€ he said.
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