(Jakarta Globe) Editor Choice: 2014, A Political Drama Rife With Discord

12/12/2018

Events surrounding Indonesia’s third direct presidential election in July have fueled internal conflicts within some parties, culminating in a schism now afflicting the country’s two oldest political organizations: the United Development Party, or PPP, and the Golkar Party.

Internal party conflict is nothing new in Indonesian politics, especially since the beginning of the reform era when autocratic control over parties disappeared along with the collapse of the New Order regime, and after which new parties have continued to spring up.

Internal discords triggered by thirst for power, however, never looked so ugly as when parties are faced with opportunities to secure a place in a ruling government.

The country’s oldest Islamic-based party, the PPP, saw its worst internal spat in the party’s 41-year history after then chairman Suryadharma Ali attended a campaign event for the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party at Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta in March, approximately two weeks before the April 9 legislative elections. Suryadharma at that time insinuated his support for Gerindra founder Prabowo Subianto’s presidential bid.

The move angered a faction within the PPP led by then secretary general M. Romahurmuzy and deputy chairman Emron Pangkapi, who accused Suryadharma of pledging the party’s support without consulting members of the executive board.

Romahurmuzy’s camp also claimed that Suryadharma’s premature show of support for Prabowo hurt PPP members in regions where political competition against Gerindra candidates during legislative campaigns were particularly fierce.

Suryadharma responded to the attacks by dismissing Romahurmuzy and Emron from the executive board. The latter fired back by organizing a one-sided party meeting that agreed on the suspension of Suryadharma.

Interference by the party’s chief patron and spiritual leader, Maimun Zubair, immediately led to a reconciliation between the two camps. And the PPP, after collecting only 6.5 percent vote during the legislative elections (the lowest score recorded by Islamic-leaning parties in the 2014 elections), agreed to join the Red-White Coalition, or KMP, to support the Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa ticket in the July 9 presidential race.

In May, however, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) named Suryadharma, who was also serving as Indonesia’s religious affairs minister, as a suspect in a hajj fund graft case. This again spurred calls from inside the party for his resignation as chairman — pressures Suryadharma ignored.

Despite the internal turbulence, the PPP stood by the Red-White Coalition, even after Prabowo’s dramatic loss in the presidential election to then Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo, a member of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). Joko was nominated by a four-party bloc that later called itself the Awesome Indonesia Coalition, or KIH, led by the PDI-P.

Despite their loss, parties that formed the Red-White Coalition still controlled a majority of the seats that forms the House of Representatives, enabling the group to revise a law on legislative bodies that later allowed the opposition bloc to snatch all leadership posts in the House through votes — including the speaker position, a pivotal role that was previously automatically given to the winner of preceding legislative elections.

However, being the smallest party in the six-party camp, the PPP was denied a post in the speakership board, consisting only of one speaker and four deputies.

The PPP’s anger mounted when the Red-White Coalition again excluded the party from nominations for the speakership board of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR). Romahurmuzy’s faction had swiftly taken control of the PPP from Suryadharma, piloting the party as it jumped ship to the PDI-P’s Awesome Indonesia Coalition in exchange for a spot as an MPR deputy speaker.

President Joko Widodo’s camp lost to the Prabowo-led Red-White coalition in the early October vote at MPR. PPP, however, has since then stayed on with the pro-government coalition, earning it one post in the cabinet as Joko decided to extend the term of senior PPP politician Lukman Hakim Saifuddin as religious minister.

The internal rift afflicting PPP further widened when its two conflicting factions held separate party congresses in late October; one led to the election of Romahurmuzy as chairman and the other to the appointment of Djan Faridz, a loyalist of Suryadharma, for the party’s top job.

The Justice and Human Rights Ministry, unsurprisingly, announced it would only recognize Romahurmuzy’s PPP.

Suryadharma’s camp brought the case to the State Administrative Court (PTUN), a move followed by Romahurmuzy’s faction. The dispute is still ongoing.

‘Productive’ Golkar

Golkar, the ruling party of the New Order regime, also suffered a rift as a result of conflicting interests surrounding the presidential election.

Although finishing second after the PDI-P in the April 9 legislative race, the party failed to garner enough votes to nominate its own chairman, tycoon Aburizal Bakrie, as its presidential candidate ahead of the July 9 contest.

Nor was he popular enough among political circles as neither the Red-White or the Awesome Indonesian Coalition were willing to choose him as a running mate of their respective presidential nominees.

Aburizal’s first move after he reportedly gained full authority to steer his party in the direction he saw fit was meeting up with PDI-P chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri in Jakarta to secure a leading role within the former president’s camp ahead of the July 9 election.

Although no announcement was made that day, it was understood that the two leaders failed to come to terms, which prompted Aburizal to swiftly shift his focus to Prabowo’s camp and, soon after, Golkar officially became part of the Red-White Coalition.

Ahead of election day and even after Joko’s victory, contradicting statements reported from within the party suggested a rift had formed, separating the once dominating political vehicle into two glaringly obvious camps: one in support of Joko and the democratic change he represented; and the other backing Prabowo’s New Order brand of authority.

Golkar, ever since its first election win in 1973, had always been part of the ruling government. Because of this, many analysts initially predicted that the party founded by late dictator Suharto would eventually switch sides to the pro-government coalition.

This, however, never happened. And the possibility for that has been sealed with Joko’s announcement of his Golkar-free cabinet lineup in late October.

The faction within Golkar that sought to align with the government blamed Aburizal for the fate the party now suffered, leading to the election of Agung Laksono, a former deputy of Aburizal, as its new chairman. Agung’s camp, which calls itself the Presidium of Golkar Saviors, held their own election in early December, mere days after a congress dominated by Aburizal’s faction saw him re-elected as the party chairman for a second term.

Both factions have registered themselves with the Justice and Human Rights Ministry, which told them to first settle their internal disputes.

Most recently, each camp has appointed their own negotiators to pave the way for a reconciliation.

Some observers have speculated that the Awesome Indonesia Coalition’s meddling in the internal affairs of the opposition would eventually weaken the Red-White Coalition and its aggressive maneuvering in the parliament.

However, political analyst Siti Zuhro of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) pointed out that internal rifts were not new to Golkar. In fact, similar conflicts following the fall of Suharto had led to the birth of many new political parties, most notably Gerindra, the People’s Conscience Party (Hanura) and the National Democratic Party (NasDem).

Founders of these — former Army general Prabowo, former Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Wiranto and media mogul Surya Paloh, respectively — were all senior politicians with Golkar before disagreements prompted them to leave and establish their own parties.

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(Jakarta Globe) Editor Choice: 2014, A Political Drama Rife With Discord