P

resident Susilo Bambang Yu-dhoyono has been infuriated by the widening rifts in the leadership of the Democratic Party that he founded more than a decade ago.

Previously deemed too lenient in tolerating “rebellious” moves by other parties in his ruling coalition, Yudhoyono appears effectively impotent when faced with quelling dissent inside his own party.

He was visibly angered by the recent decision of lawmaker Mohammad Jafar Hafsah, the Democratic Party’s leader in the House, to move lawmaker Angelina “Angie” Sondakh from Commission X overseeing education to Commission III overseeing law.

The move was seen as a rank-and-file thumbing of the Democratic Party’s collective nose at the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) for naming Angelina a graft suspect.

The KPK, meanwhile, rejected Angelina’s committee assignment.

“I won’t come to any Commission III meeting if Angelina is there,” KPK chairman Abraham Samad said.

Separately, Youth and Sports Minister Andi Mallarangeng, also party patron board secretary, said that Angelina’s move had drawn Yudhoyono’s ire.

“Pak Yudhoyono was really furious when he heard about the rotation. He considered the rotation not to be a smart move. It’s unwise to place someone with legal troubles like Angelina on a commission that oversees legal matters,” Andi said in Denpasar, Bali.

Although Andi said that Yudhoyono had ordered party chairman Anas Urbaningrum to reject the posting, the party’s senior politicians had already started to play the blame game.

“The [transfer] idea was solely Jafar’s,” senior Democratic Party lawmaker Ruhut “Poltak” Sitompul said.

Fellow politician Sutan Bhatoegana agreed. “Jafar was the puppet master.”

Jafar eventually backed down, keeping Angelina on Commission X, while denying that the proposed transfer was aimed at applying pressure on the KPK.

Angelina’s name, however, still appeared on a Commission III attendance list on Thursday.

Observers attribute the party’s squabbles to lingering animosity following the fierce battles waged during the election for the party’s top position during its national congress in Bandung, West Java, in 2010.

Angelina, Jafar and Commission III chairman Benny Kabur Harman were loyal backers of Anas, who triumphed over two much older candidates in the race, Andi and House Speaker Marzuki Alie.

The rivalries were reignited after the KPK launched a probe on the corruption scandal surrounding the construction of the Rp 191.7 billion (US$21.08 million) athletes’ village for the 2011 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Palembang, South Sumatra.

Angie has been named a suspect in the case, while former Democratic Party treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin is currently standing trial for his alleged role in the scandal.

Supporters of Marzuki and of Andi, who gained the support of Yudhoyono’s family in the 2010 contest, were angry after Nazaruddin testified that he spent billions of rupiah from the state budget to buy votes for Anas.

On Monday, Yudhoyono said that he was angry upon learning that Anas had appeared to be “protecting” Nazaruddin during a hearing of the party’s ethics council a few days after the graft case was made public.

Yudhoyono’s statement prompted speculation that he was uncomfortable with Anas’ leadership of the party.

Yudhoyono has repeatedly made efforts to prevent the party’s internal squabbles from going public, calling on party members not to issue contradictory statements in the media.

Separately, Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) analyst Burhanuddin Muhtadi attributed the troubles in the Democratic Party to the poor communication skills of the party’s senior members.

“The party’s poor communications management and weak damage control have helped the public to realize that the divisions among factions exist and are now getting worse,” Burhanuddin said.