The internal conflict in Indonesia’s largest opposition party was made public early last month when party chairman Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono, the eldest son of party patriarch and former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY), accused an unnamed State Palace official of complicity in a deliberate attempt to unseat him from the party leadership.

The statement is believed to have been directed at Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko, who acknowledged meeting with several party members but denied taking any part in what Agus called an “attempted coup” against him.

The political squabble, however, took a new twist on Thursday after Democratic Party executive Andi Arief claimed on Twitter that Moeldoko was planning to hold a meeting with several senior party members to plot a “coup” against Agus.

“This is not a rumor. Pak Moeldoko and some party members will carry out a coup,” Andi tweeted.

He claimed that the party had found evidence that Moeldoko planned to hold the meeting in a hotel in North Sumatra and that some party members known to be opposed to Agus’ leadership such as Jhoni Allen Marbun, Yus Sudarso, Darmizal, Ahmad Yahya, Marzuki Alie and Max Sopacua were scheduled to attend the meeting.

“We hope that the President [Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo] and State [Secretary Pratikno] are not aware of Pak Moeldoko’s departure for North Sumatra in an attempt to take over the Democratic Party leadership from [Agus],” he said.

The Jakarta Post tried to contact Moeldoko for comments on the fresh allegations against him on Thursday but was unsuccessful.

Challenging SBY’s leadership

While this is not the first internal attempt to challenge the ascendancy of the Yudhoyono family, it is largely being seen as the fiercest challenge the Democrats have launched against SBY, who has failed to bring his party to electoral victory since completing his second presidential term in 2014.

Andi’s tweets came amid attempts by the anti-SBY faction to gain the support of Democrat members nationwide for holding an extraordinary congress to elect a new chair. The faction has also launched political attacks against the former president, who has uploaded a video on social media that blasts his detractors and warns against any “takeover”.

“I say this to the outsider who wants to take over the party: The Democratic Party is not for sale,” SBY says in the video published on Feb. 24.

Jhoni, a key figure in the anti-SBY movement, uploaded his own video statement in response on Monday. In his statement, he claims that the former president is no stranger to political shenanigans and accuses SBY of rigging the party vote in his favor during the 2013 extraordinary congress to regain control of the party.

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The extraordinary congress took place shortly after the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) charged then-chairman Anas Urbaningrum with corruption. The graft scandal rocked the Democrats, which plunged into a leadership crisis.

“I was ordered by SBY to persuade then-House of Representatives speaker Marzuki Alie, who finished second after Anas [in the election] at the 2010 congress, to withdraw his candidacy as [party] chair,” Jhoni says in the video.

In an interview with KompasTV, former Democrat member Max Sopacua, another senior figure in the anti-SBY camp, said he was optimistic that the extraordinary congress would be held this month.

“With this congress, we want to bring the party back to its [original] vision as a party of the people that is open, modern, nationalist-religious and belongs to everyone, not just a selected group or family,” he said.

The party has denied Johni’s claims, saying that Jhoni was throwing around baseless allegations because he was sacked from the party along with other supporters of the “coup”.

“They’re no longer members of the party,” said party spokesman Herzaky. It remains to be seen whether the anti-SBY camp can gather enough support to hold an extraordinary congress, but analysts say that the ongoing internal friction signifies that Agus has failed to be a unifying figure.

“This is happening not only in the Democratic Party, but also the National Mandate Party,” said Indonesian Institute of Sciences’ (LIPI) head of political research center Firman Noor, referring to another opposition party beset by internal division.

Battle of ex-generals

The crisis within the Democratic Party has practically pitted SBY against Moeldoko, who was the commander of the Indonesian Military (TNI) during the latter days of SBY’s presidency.

Moeldoko, a potential candidate for the 2024 presidential election, is no rookie in party politics.

After retiring from the TNI in 2015, he joined the Hanura Party as deputy chief patron, but resigned soon after President Jokowi appointed him as the presidential chief of staff in 2018.

The Democrats believe that although Moeldoko is now part of Jokowi’s inner circle, the President was not aware of his alleged attempt to take over the party leadership, with Andi claiming that that Jokowi had already reprimanded Moeldoko over the attempted takeover.

Moeldoko, however, seems to have refused to back down from the controversy, going so far as to warn Democrat officials against pressuring him, that he would do “something” if he deemed it necessary.

“Don’t pressure me. I stay silent, so don’t pressure me,” he told reporters on Feb. 25.

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Political analyst Ujang Komarudin said the former general was confident in his political power to make an attempt at a leadership takeover.

The Democratic Party was an established party and could prove useful for Moeldoko, who had indicated presidential ambitions for 2024, he said.

Agus’ leadership test

The alleged political showdown between SBY and Moeldoko may prove to be one of the greatest challenges to Agus, who is largely seen as a novice in party politics.

Agus graduated from the TNI Academy in 2000 and retired early from his military career in 2016 to enter the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election.

Ujang said Agus was still on solid ground for the time being, with the majority of Democrats still rooting for him. However, things could become dicey for the young party leader, he said, if the anti-SBY camp rallied the support of external political figures to help organize an extraordinary congress, which could also destabilize the party.

“The problem is that the powers that be can meddle to divide the political party,” he said, adding that they could influence party members with voting rights by intimidating them with legal threats or offering them strategic positions.