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Golkar must groom members or risk being left behind: Expert
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Deputy chairman of the Golkar Party Priyo Budi Santoso (center), with party chairmanship campaign team chief Hajriyanto Y Thohari (second left) and other members of Prioyo's campaign team give a press conference on April 14. Priyo has declared himself to be a candidate running for the party chairmanship at the party's National Meeting scheduled to be held in Bali in May. (Antara/Sigid Kurniawan)
T
he Golkar Party should begin grooming its members and prepare the next generation of politicians or it could be at risk of being left behind amid growing concerns about the reduced influence of political parties in elections, a political analyst said on Monday.
The electorate’s faith in political parties has shown a marked decline following recent cases of vote buying and corruption committed by political party members, Siti Zuhro, a senior political analyst with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) said.
The fractious situation faced by Golkar might also contribute to the party's declining popularity.
“As a big party, Golkar should build a network and recruit potential figures that are believed by the public to be going to be promoted in the next regional and presidential elections. Otherwise, Golkar will be left behind," she said in a discussion event on Monday.
Golkar senior politician and chairman candidate Priyo Budi Santoso agreed with the suggestion and said he would push for the party to have a membership school to reform its internal structure and performance.
“If I win the chairmanship election, I plan to establish a school with a proper curriculum to groom our members so they will be ready to be promoted as a regent, mayor, governor, minister or even as a company executive,” he said.
The decline of Golkar, strongly affiliated with late dictator Soeharto and his New Order regime, began with the fall of that president in May 1998.
During Soeharto's 32-year presidential tenure, Golkar enjoyed the luxury of being the single-biggest party in the country, and consecutively swept all six general elections from 1971 until 1997 garnering an average vote of over 60 percent.
However, the party suffered defeat for the first time in the 1999 general elections after it came in second with 22.44 percent of the vote trailing the Megawati Soekarnoputri-led Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), which claimed victory in the elections.
Golkar's performance in the recent simultaneous regional elections in December showed an even greater decline. The party came in ninth position of 12 political parties in the elections, far below the PDI-P, which topped the poll, according to data compiled by the NGO the People's Voters Education Network (JPPR).
Golkar is engaged in an internal conflict between two factions, one led by Aburizal Bakrie, who was elected party chairman at a national congress in Bali in November 2014; and a splinter faction led by Agung Laksono, who was elected at a national congress in December 2015 in Ancol.
The government, through Justice and Human Rights Miniser Yasona Laoly, issued a decree in January extending Aburizal's leadership based on a national congress in 2014 for six months.
The party will hold a National Meeting in Bali on May 7 in a bid to unify its membership. (vps/rin)
