Some of the dismissed party members — who protested strongly against their dismissal — suspected that the dismissal was related to their support for another party figure, House Speaker Bambang Soesatyo, to run in the chairmanship race.
he impending battle for the Golkar Party’s top post is beginning to heat up with yet another internal issue, as some representatives in the party’s regional offices have been dismissed from their positions after openly challenging chairman Airlangga Hartarto’s leadership.
Some of the dismissed party members — who protested strongly against their dismissal — suspected that the issue was related to their support for another party figure, House Speaker Bambang Soesatyo, to run in the chairmanship race.
In the latest case, 10 leaders of regency and city-level branches (DPD II) of the Golkar Party in Maluku were made non-active last week, with Golkar’s Maluku chapter saying that their dismissal was due to their failure to gain a significant number of votes for the party in the 2019 legislative election in the province.
Golkar’s Buru regency chapter chairman Ramly Umasugi, one of the dismissed leaders, protested against his dismissal and said that the reason given by the Maluku chapter of the country’s oldest existing political party was “nonsense”.
Ramly, who is also Buru regent, went on to say that the dismissal was legally flawed because the decision had not been taken by Golkar’s Maluku chapter chairman Said Assagaff.
Assagaff — who later admitted that he had learned about the dismissal only after some senior party members contacted him — was reportedly absent during the meeting held by party executives of the Maluku chapter to discuss the issue on Tuesday last week.
“The Golkar Party central board is the one that needs reform because our national vote fell sharply,” Ramly said, “We have lost 1.2 million votes and six seats in the [House of Representatives].”
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