TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Golkar plays both sides ahead of 2024 election
By approaching the camps of Ganjar Pranowo and Prabowo Subianto, Golkar is playing both sides ahead of next year's election, with Golkar chairman Airlangga making it clear that his party would not support opposition figure Anies Baswedan.
Change Size
Golkar Party Chairman Airlangga Hartarto gives a speech on June 4, 2023, during a national working meeting in the party's headquarters in Slipi, West Jakarta. (Antara/Sigid Kurniawan)
Golkar Party chairman Airlangga Hartarto appeared to have consolidated his position despite a leadership challenge raised by some of his colleagues, ministers serving President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo in his second and final term in office. But the direction of the country’s oldest party in the upcoming presidential race will still likely hinge on the preferences of Jokowi, a member of the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of struggle (PDI-P) who still has some influence over voters given his high ratings in opinion polls.
Tension within Golkar has been brewing over the past month as it suffers a dip in popularity and internal bickering on which presidential candidate to nominate for the February election. This prompted Golkar politicians Luhut Pandjaitan and Bahlil Lahadalia, both of whom are members of Jokowi’s cabinet, to express their readiness to take over Airlangga’s post in an extraordinary congress.
The 60-year-old Airlangga appeared to have intensified his move to dodge the snap leadership contest meant to replace him. He now has the support of the party’s provincial chapters and three influential senior party members who won’t allow the extraordinary congress to occur before Airlangga’s tenure ends next year.
Airlangga has been considering running for president next year despite his persistently low electability rating. But he now appears to be rethinking that plan and instead began to consider supporting one of two popular pro-Jokowi candidates in 2024, even though he has yet to decide who the party will back in the presidential race.
Prabowo or Ganjar?
After months of insisting on nominating Airlangga to contest the country’s top post, some of the party’s central board executives also began changing their tune. They now say that naming Airlangga a presidential candidate in the upcoming race “is not definitive”.
Airlangga said last Wednesday that the party would only put its support behind presidential candidates who represent the interests of Jokowi, meaning either Jokowi’s fellow PDI-P politician Ganjar Pranowo, or Prabowo Subianto of Gerindra Party. Airlangga made it clear that Golkar would not back Anies Baswedan, a staunch political rival of Jokowi.
