TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Opposing camps maintain Democratic Party schism. Experts tip final resolution at court.
The Democratic Party's leadership dispute seems headed for the long haul, with observers suggesting that past precedents point to the internal dispute eventually ending up at court.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono (AHY), the eldest son of Democratic Party patron Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the incumbent party chair, delivers a motivational speech to West Kalimantan Democrat members in 2019. (Antara/Jessica Helena Wuysang)
Infighting continues within the Democratic Party with the opposing camps appearing to stand their ground, and despite the government’s denial that it is taking sides, echoes of past struggles over divided leadership suggest that the dispute may go to court.
The opposing camps are split along internal trust lines and led on the one hand by Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono, the duly elected chairman since the March 2020 party congress, and the other by Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko. The Agus camp is seeking government reaffirmation of the current leadership, while the Moeldoko camp is urging formal recognition of the change in leadership.
Moeldoko has denied any involvement in what the Agus camp has called “an attempted coup”.
Read also: Revolt brews in Democratic Party against Yudhoyono ‘dynasty’
On Monday, Agus presented to the Law and Human Rights Ministry a ministerial decree verifying his chairmanship since last March, as well as the party's constitution and rules of association. The documents were submitted to support his attempt to prove the invalidity and unconstitutionality of the extraordinary congress held last Friday in Deli Serdang, North Sumatra, at which Moeldoko was elected the Democrat’s new chairman.
He also presented documents to prove that the majority of the party’s regional executives did not attend the Deli Serdang congress.
