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Tommy Soeharto’s Golkar chairmanship candidacy questioned
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United – Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie (right), accompanied by his deputy, Agung Laksono, talks at an internal meeting at the party’s central executive board headquarters in Jakarta on April 7. (Antara/-)
T
he nomination as Golkar Party chairman of Hutomo ‘Tommy’ Mandala Putra, the youngest son of late former president Soeharto, will hamper the party’s struggle to rebuild its image, an observer has opined.
“People would question Tommy’s eligibility as regards his track record. In the current situation, Golkar needs to find the right chairman, someone who can unify and is committed to improving the party and grooming its cadres, instead of someone who can merely finance it,” Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) senior political analyst Siti Zuhro said on Monday.
Born in 1962, Tommy took control of a large number of businesses during his father's New Order regime (1966-1998), allegedly making vast amounts of money through corruption and embezzlement.
Golkar has been split into two factions for around a year. The Golkar leadership led by Aburizal Bakrie was chosen by a party national congress (munas) in Bali in November 2014, while a splinter faction led by Agung Laksono was elected at a munas at Ancol in Jakarta in December 2015.
The conflict receded earlier this year when the Supreme Court ordered Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna H Laoly to revoke a decree acknowledging the legitimacy of the Agung camp. The minister later issued a decree that legalized the Golkar leadership declared at the Bali Munas.
The Law and Human Rights Ministry extended the Golkar leadership formed at a Riau congress, which should have expired in 2014, for six months on Jan. 28 to help the party organize a reconciliation congress. It was then decided that Golkar would hold an extraordinary national congress (munaslub), scheduled for May 23 to May 26 in Bali.
The chair of the congress’ steering committee, Nurdin Halid, confirmed on Monday that Tommy would run for the party chairmanship along with other candidates Ade Komaruddin, Airlangga Hartarto, Aziz Syamsuddin, Indra Bambang Utoyo, Mahyudin, Priyo Budi Santoso, Setya Novanto, Syahrul Yasin Limpo and Wati Amir.
Nurdin said as quoted by Tempo.co that Tommy had sent a representative to attend an event set by the committee to introduce the mechanisms and procedures of the munaslub and chairmanship race, although the son of the late president has yet to formally declare his candidacy.
During Soeharto's 32-year authoritarian leadership, Golkar enjoyed the benefits of being the single biggest party in the country. It 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 election, in which it came second with 22.44 percent of the votes after the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), led by Megawati Soekarnoputri, daughter of founding president Sukarno.
Golkar's performance in recent regional elections showed an even greater decline; the party ranked ninth of 12 political parties participating in the elections, far below the PDI-P, which topped the poll, according to data compiled by NGO the People's Voters Education Network (JPPR).
“Currently, there is great public attention on all political parties including Golkar. It will as such be hard for the party if it fails to convince the public, especially before the next simultaneous regional elections in 2017 and legislative and presidential elections in 2019,” Siti said. (vps/ebf)
