Some of the dismissed party members — who protested strongly against their dismissal — suspected that the issue was related to their support for 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 nonactive last week, with Golkar’s Maluku chapter saying that its dismissal was due to its 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 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 made 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.”

Ramly and the other nine leaders are among the Golkar politicians who have publicly thrown their support behind Bambang, who has emerged as a strong candidate to replace Airlangga, a technocrat politician who serves as industry minister in President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s Cabinet.

A group of Golkar politicians campaigning for Bambang’s chairmanship bid recently said it had secured the backing of 400 party members from provincial, regency and city-level branches for its candidate in the party’s national congress, which is scheduled to be held in December.

Recently, Golkar’s Cirebon City chapter chairman Toto Sunarto was also dismissed from his position by the West Java chapter of Golkar earlier this month, a decision he found to be nonsensical because it happened shortly after he had declared support for Bambang.

“We should have the opportunity to decide who our leader is,” Toto said. “By doing this, Golkar is no longer like a political party, but a kingdom […] and there’s King Airlangga.”

Airlangga has denied giving an order to dismiss the party leaders after they declared support for Bambang, saying that the dismissal was an issue at the regional level.

Bambang, on the other hand, criticized the dismissal as an undemocratic action and said he would fight against authoritarianism inside the party.

“Why didn’t [Golkar] dismiss me instead? Don’t do it to the local representatives who have been taking care of the party and fighting to secure the victory of Jokowi and Ma’ruf Amin just because they support the other candidate,” he said.

Golkar’s share of the vote in the 2019 legislative election declined to 12.31 percent from 14.75 percent in 2014. The party may also lose several House seats, with the number to drop to around 85 from 91 it gained in 2014.

Airlangga has expressed his intention to run again as the party’s leader for the next period and promised to ensure Golkar’s victory in the 2024 elections.

While Bambang has yet to firmly declare his leadership bid, he has met senior Golkar politicians, including party ethics board deputy chairman Akbar Tandjung and former president BJ Habibie.

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