B

ickering within Golkar over the party'€™s leadership has raised concerns among senior members, some of whom have called for outright intervention.

Muladi, who chairs the party'€™s internal tribunal, said leaders and members of the tribunal would convene on Wednesday to take a decision that would recommend the party hold a national assembly by June this year to resolve the ongoing leadership dispute.

The senior politician floated the proposal on Monday, which was swiftly met with rejection from Nurdin Halid, one of the members of Golkar'€™s central board controlled by Aburizal Bakrie.

Nurdin maintained that members of the party'€™s internal tribunal no longer had the authority to make recommendations for the central board, as their terms had expired on New Year'€™s Day.

Muladi, however, insisted that he continued to hold his position in the party, given that the party had yet to appoint his replacement.

'€œAs long as the [management roster from the 2014 Riau congress] has not yet been replaced with a new one, this tribunal still stands. That is important for upholding legitimacy, and that legitimacy has afforded me the courage to make the recommendation,'€ he said on Tuesday.

'€œThe tribunal will convene tomorrow [Wednesday] evening to produce a recommendation.'€

Tribunal members HAS Natabaya, Djasri Marin and Andi Mattalatta are expected to be present for the meeting, Muladi said.

The former justice minister in the administration of transitional president BJ Habibie said the recent Supreme Court ruling instructing the Law and Human Rights Ministry to annul Agung Laksono'€™s chairmanship of Golkar provided only temporary relief and did nothing to bring the party'€™s internal rift to an end.

'€œGolkar is in shambles; it is not solid, and cadres are suspicious of each other. If we'€™re still considered illegitimate, the four of us will make a recommendation in our capacity as senior party members,'€ he said.

Golkar advisory board chairman Akbar Tandjung stuck to his proposal that hosting a national assembly would be the only way forward, given the poor election results and that such a meeting would also consolidate the party ahead of the second round of regional elections in 2017.

'€œThe results from recent [regional] elections fell far short of our expectations; Golkar [politicians were] able to participate in 116 of the 269 elections held simultaneously. And even then, only 49 can be deemed as [getting positive results],'€ he said.

Akbar said that Golkar could perform even worse in the future unless it got its act together.

'€œThis is a sharp decline from previous results, and we are worried that this may happen again in the 2017 elections,'€ he said.

Akbar also said he had recently consulted with Habibie, calling on him to intervene.

Instead, Habibie pleaded that Akbar bring together Aburizal, Agung and members of the tribunal before him to discuss a viable exit strategy.

Akbar said a national consultation meeting hosted by Aburizal'€™s camp in Bali on Monday had resulted in an eight-point resolution, which included an agreement among the party'€™s regional representatives council (DPD) not to host an extraordinary national congress (munaslub) until 2019.

Monday'€™s Bali meeting recommended that an upcoming national executive meeting in Yogyakarta should decide whether Golkar should change its stance towards the administration of President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo.

Agung and Aburizal have fought over the party'€™s chairmanship since a failed succession at a national congress in Bali late 2014. Agung'€™s camp challenged Aburizal'€™s re-election at the congress, claiming that he had manipulated his way into a second term as chairman.

Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly earlier issued a decree recognizing Agung'€™s leadership after a Golkar internal tribunal issued a ruling in favor of Agung in March, without naming him chairman.

Yasonna insisted that the government would not meddle in Golkar'€™s internal affairs. '€œWe leave the settlement of the leadership dispute to the party'€™s internal mechanism.'€
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