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Leadership crisis threatens PPP’s chances for 2024
A leadership crisis threatens to shift the United Development Party's focus away from preparing for the 2024 general elections, with the remarks of the recently deposed chairman Suharso Monoarfa angering many clerics.
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National Development Planning Minister Suharso Monoarfa briefs reporters following the signing of a deal in Jakarta on Feb. 10, 2020. Suharso was deposed on Sept. 4, 2022 after angering his party's ranks with a suggestive comment about Islamic teachers. (JP/ydp)
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ith less than a year and a half until the 2024 elections, the United Development Party (PPP), the oldest Islamic party in the country, has been plunged back into turmoil after party chairman Suharso Monoarfa was deposed over a “slip of tongue” that angered Muslim clerics in the face of the party’s declining popularity.
Suharso, who took over the leadership position in 2020 after his predecessor Muhammad “Romy” Romahurmuziy was arrested on graft charges, was pushed out following the party’s national working meeting in Serang, Banten, on Sunday, initiated by a number of party executives.
The embattled leader was temporarily replaced by the party’s advisory council chairman Muhammad Mardiono, who also serves as a member of the Presidential Advisory Council (Wantimpres) and is a close ally of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo. Mardiono will serve as the party’s acting chairman until Suharso’s term expires in 2025.
“[Suharso] wasn’t fired from the party […] The proper term is that he was stripped of his leadership role so as to end this controversy,” Mardiono said on Monday.
Suharso has in recent months been engulfed in scandals, including allegations of receiving gratuities linked to the use of private jets in 2020 and repeated demonstrations at the party’s Jakarta headquarters calling for his removal.
The straw that broke the camel’s back was his remarks on Aug. 15 that suggested he had to leave “envelopes” of money whenever he wanted to meet with Muslim clerics, which angered many.
Three of the party’s oversight councils – the Sharia Council, the Ethics Council and the Advisory Council – had asked Suharso twice in late August to resign but he dismissed the requests as a violation of internal regulations.
