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KPK turns Golkar’s dream into nightmare
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Gearing up: Agung Laksono (left), chairman of Golkar's board of experts, Akbar Tandjung (second left), the deputy chairman of Golkar honorary board, and former chairman Aburizal Bakrie (second right) accompany Golkar chairman Setya Novanto during the opening of the party's national leadership meeting (Rapimnas)in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, on Monday. (Antara/M.Agung Rajasa)
W
hen Setya Novanto took over the Golkar Party’s leadership in May 2015, effectively ending the long and bitter power struggle among the party’s bigwigs, hopes were high among members that the party could finally focus on victory in the 2019 election.
Such optimism was not entirely misplaced: the party’s electability rose from 11.4 percent in August 2015 to 14.1 percent in August last year, according to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) surveys.
The party, once the most powerful political institution in the country, even won 58 percent of 101 regional elections in February.
Things, however, went downhill after the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) announced in July that Setya, who now serves as the House of Representatives speaker, had been named a suspect in the high profile e-ID graft case.
The KPK’s move triggered fresh internal tensions within the party, with Setya’s rivals now having a legitimate pretext to call for his ouster.
Meanwhile, the latest CSIS survey, released last week, has shown the party’s electability took a nose dive to 10.9 percent in August this year.
The think-tank said that the Gerindra Party was now the second-most popular party after the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), with electability rates of 17 percent and 35 percent, respectively.
