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Ministerial decree eases Golkar tensions
Yasonna Laoly - JP/Jerry AdigunaIn an attempt to end the drawn-out leadership dispute between the two rival camps of the Golkar Party, Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly issued on Thursday a decree extending the term of the leadership roster that evolved from the 2009 Golkar national congress in Riau
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Yasonna Laoly - JP/Jerry Adiguna
In an attempt to end the drawn-out leadership dispute between the two rival camps of the Golkar Party, Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly issued on Thursday a decree extending the term of the leadership roster that evolved from the 2009 Golkar national congress in Riau.
The decree stipulates that the Riau management will be valid for a period of six months, within which the party's warring camps must get their act together to organize an extraordinary national congress (munaslub) and nominate a new chairman. 'This is the best decision and hopefully both camps can now sit together to organize another national congress,' Yasonna said in a press conference in Central Jakarta on Thursday.
The minister said the decision was based on Law No. 30/2014 on state administration, which stipulates that the government must provide legal certainty for political parties.
Leadership legitimacy in Golkar should have returned to the proponents of the Riau congress, which elected Aburizal Bakrie as chairman and Agung Laksono as his deputy, following a Supreme Court ruling that revoked a previous government decree recognizing the leadership of Agung, who became chairman at a national congress in Ancol, Jakarta, in December 2014.
The split persisted after the court ruling because it returned the leadership to the Riau management under Aburizal, whose tenure had expired in 2014.
As a remedy, the new ministerial decree stipulates that the Riau management board regains the authority to form a steering committee to organize the munaslub, which the ministry hopes will begin in three months.
Golkar lawmaker and Aburizal stalwart Firman Soebagyo expressed his hope that the ministry ruling would appease both camps and prevent further disputes.
Firman, who is deputy chairman of the House Legislative Body (Baleg), said the government was wise in bringing back the Riau roster, which included both Aburizal and Agung in leadership roles.
'If the leadership was handed back to [proponents of the] Bali congress, Agung's camp would protest. Bringing back the Riau roster was the right decision [...] because everyone is accommodated,' he said at the House complex on Thursday.
House of Representatives Speaker Ade Komarudin, another known proponent of Aburizal's camp, said the party should focus on hosting the national congress.
'What's most important is how we are able to unite all the elements of a party that has split into so many fragments ' that's the focus of the current debate. We can start discussing other matters [once we are united],' Ade told reporters on Thursday.
Separately, Agung's camp has also welcomed the decree, with officials saying that it paved the way for both camps to reunite in a forum that they both endorsed.
Agung supporter and deputy chairman of the central executive board, Priyo Budi Santoso, said the next step would be to form an organizing committee for the congress without any involvement from the government. Priyo said it was important to consolidate both camps at the regional branch level, which had also split following the leadership dispute.
He said Golkar must be able to determine whether the regional executive branches of both sides would retain their respective voting rights, or whether a merging of regional branch management rosters was in order.
In the meantime, Zainuddin Amali, secretary-general of Golkar under Agung's leadership, has asked the party elders who make up the recently established transition team to chaperone the passing of the leadership baton, despite the renewed legitimacy of the Riau management.
'It is the task of the transition team to ensure that the congress is fairly held, involves all stakeholders and most importantly, that the results will not lead to future legal disputes,' Zainuddin told reporters on Thursday.
'If they leave it all to [the Riau management] to resolve, problems may arise later on. We need the transition team.'
Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung confirmed a closed-door meeting on Thursday between President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo and former president BJ Habibie who is also a member of a transition team established to pave the way for the munaslub, however Pramono declined to reveal what was on the table during the meeting.
Pramono also stopped short of commenting whether or not the meeting signaled that Golkar would support the pro-government coalition, but said that 'the government, particularly the President, wants the Golkar's [leadership] issue to be resolved as soon as possible'.
He later reiterated that the government would not meddle with the issue, saying that the government appreciated the formal decision made during the recent Golkar national leadership meeting that agreed to hold the extraordinary congress.
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