The leadership of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) plans to summon senior member Budiman Sudjatmiko over his supposed show of support for Prabowo Subianto, making Budiman the third PDI-P member to be grilled following a visit to a rival of the ruling party’s presidential candidate Ganjar Pranowo.

Budiman, a former pro-democracy activist opposing the New Order regime, raised eyebrows earlier this week when he visited Prabowo at his private residence in Jakarta, praising the ex-son-in-law of the country’s longtime autocratic ruler, Soeharto, and saying that he is the kind of person that Indonesia needed now.

The 53-year-old politician was welcomed by Prabowo before they held a private meeting behind closed doors for about two hours on Tuesday evening. Budiman made it clear that he did not represent his party during the visit, but rather that he acted on his own initiative, an argument the PDI-P immediately challenged.

PDI-P ethics council head Komarudin Watubun said Budiman could not simply claim that he came to visit a presumptive presidential candidate of another party as a private individual and not as a PDI-P politician because he is a card-carrying party member.

"Everyone who carries a party membership card is bound by party rules, not as free folks who are not part of any organization," Komarudin said, as quoted by Tempo. He did not mention when the party would summon Budiman.

PDI-P chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri named Ganjar the party’s presidential candidate in April. The matriarch has since instructed her party members to rally behind the Central Java Governor and warned that those not toeing the party line would face expulsion.

Referring to Megawati’s directive, Komarudin said the ethics council would sanction members straying from the party line, without exception.

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