Golkar warned against political manipulation

Golkar warned against political manipulation

A political analyst warned the Golkar Party of manipulating the public if the special leadership meeting that would be held ahead of schedule was designed to nominate party chairman Aburizal Bakrie as the party's sole presidential candidate in 2014.

"Golkar will be accused of manipulating the public, especially its supporters in the grass root, because Aburizal has several times promised to give an equal chance to all party figures to run their presidential candidacy. Besides Aburizal, former president Jusuf Kalla and former House speaker Akbar Tandjung have their capacity for nomination," Ikrar Nusa Bhakti of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) said in a discussion on the presidency under the multi-party system here on Monday.

He warned that if Golkar went ahead with its main agenda to determine Aburizal as its sole presidential candidate, it would raise negative impacts either to the party and Aburizal himself and its supporters in the field.

According to him, the meeting should be held in accordance with the schedule in October, 2012 and set a democratic mechanism in selecting presidential aspirants as its main agenda. "Golkar should learn from its losses in the past two direct presidential elections. If Golkar determines its presidential candidate in a conflict condition, it will be defeated in the next race."

Separately, University of Indonesia political analyst Iberamsyah said Aburizal's political itinerary towards the country's No. 1 position was not certain.

"Ical will be facing major problems, not only from himself, but also from the internal fragmentation in Golkar. His presidential bid starts meeting a strong opposition from the party as he is trying to close an equal chance for other senior figures to run their candidacy," he said.

He said many regions started raising their opposition to Aburizal's presidential bid because they no longer had confidence in him for his empty promises in leading the party in the past three years.

Iberamsyah said other major parties would be glad of Aburizal's presidential bid because they could easily beat him in the race.(dic)