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End in sight to Golkar's internal conflict
Former president Bacharudin Jusuf Habibie claimed on Friday that an agreement would soon be reached between the Golkar Partyâs two rival factions, which have been at loggerheads for over a year
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ormer president Bacharudin Jusuf Habibie claimed on Friday that an agreement would soon be reached between the Golkar Party's two rival factions, which have been at loggerheads for over a year.
Habibie, who was recently appointed as the guarantor of Golkar's leadership transition team, said he had recently been shown a commitment letter undersigned by Vice President Jusuf Kalla, as well as Agung Laksono and Aburizal Bakrie ' the two rivals vying for control of one of the country's most persisting political entities.
'I was shown a letter with the signatures; in the letter, they agreed to host a national leadership meeting to discuss matters pertaining to the upcoming congress,' Habibie told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Yogyakarta.
Habibie, a party elder statesman, said that the leadership meeting might be hosted as early as Saturday. The transition team met at his Jakarta residence late on Friday.
Habibie said that the old guard of the party, including Agung and Aburizal, should 'be ready to accept' whatever it took to ensure the party survived.
'We will wait to see what arises from the next congress,' he said.
The transition team was formed following a Golkar internal tribunal ruling last week that sought a permanent solution to the party's protracted infighting.
The team comprises Kalla as chairman, Agung, Aburizal and a number of Golkar veterans and luminaries including Emil Salim, Akbar Tandjung and Ginandjar Kartasasmita.
According to Habibie, the committee in charge of the congress preparations will comprise the party's management based on the 2009 Riau national congress, in which both Aburizal and Agung play leadership roles. It is expected that the transition team will guide the committee toward a reconciliation congress slated for March.
'Let's stop all the nonsense; let's settle this once and for all,' he said.
Habibie and Emil have indicated the team will seek a chairman who, while having proven leadership skills, is between 40 and 60 years old; this will afford younger figures like Ade Komaruddin, Bambang Soesatyo, Setya Novanto and Nurdin Halid the chance to lead the party.
Aburizal's camp, which claimed the leadership at a national congress in Bali in December 2014, had initially rejected the idea of a transition team, and pressed forward with holding a national meeting in Jakarta.
The incumbent Golkar chairman said, however, that he would no longer resist if the leadership meeting concluded with a two-thirds consensus agreeing on reconciliation.
'The party chairman can do nothing if, in accordance with party statutes and bylaws, two-thirds of the provincial branch leaders demand a [new] congress,' said Bambang Soesatyo, Golkar deputy treasurer and Aburizal partisan, at the House of Representatives on Thursday.
Aburizal's leadership meeting is to conclude on Tuesday.
Agung, meanwhile, insisted that the ongoing leadership meeting in Jakarta was neither orchestrated nor supported by the recently formed transition team.
'I need to clarify that the Jan. 23-26 national meeting is hosted by the Bali congress camp and has nothing to do with the plans of the transition team; it is solely at their own discretion,' he said on Friday.
The transition team had yet to convene, let alone decide on hosting a leadership meeting, he stressed.
Agung, who became chairman during a national congress in Jakarta a few days after the Bali meeting, said that his camp fully respected the decision of Golkar's internal tribunal to appoint 11 senior party members to the transition team.
Political analyst Gun Gun Heryanto said that submitting to the objections of the transition team was the only viable option for true reconciliation within Golkar.
'Golkar's internal conflict will never be resolved through legal means. This has been proven time and time again with endless legal processes,' he said.
'That means only a political process can unite the two sides. Now the question is what kind of political process [is suitable].'
Gun Gun explained that the party's very existence was on the line, the internal conflict already having severely affected its performance in last year's regional elections.
'Those results must prompt the Golkar Party to commit to an exit strategy from this never-ending internal conflict,' he said.
Most, Gun Gun said, saw a national congress as the solution to the conflict, but he added that he was unsure Aburizal would be cooperative.
'If he continues to be stubborn, then he is being selfish; if that's the case, he may continue to attempt to prioritize the interests of his group, and it may prove difficult to reach a solution together,' he said.
'However, if he continues to be sure of his support then it would make much more sense to sit together and reach a definitive solution.'
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