(JakGlobe) Aburizal Defies Golkar to Tweet Support for Elections

12/12/2018

Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie risks alienating supporters, experts say, after unilaterally reversing his party’s earlier stance against reinstating direct local elections.

Late on Tuesday, Aburizal tweeted that “the Golkar Party will support the government’s proposed [sic] emergency regulation [perppu] on the Regional Elections Law.”

Neither Aburizal’s characterization of the emergency regulation as a “proposal,” nor his attribution for it to “the government” is accurate.

The presidential regulation in lieu of law to which Aburizal refers was issued by then-president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in the final days of his administration.

The emergency regulation, which assumed full legal effect for 90 days beginning in late October, supersedes the so-called Law on Regional Elections, enacted by the House of Representatives days prior, that in fact eliminates regional elections for governors, mayors and district chiefs.

When the perppu, which reinstated regional elections, expires this month, the House must vote to sustain or reject it.

President Joko Widodo and the House minority Awesome Indonesia Coalition (KIH) that supports his administration, have said they are committed to direct regional elections and will seek to sustain the perppu.

Aburizal’s remark in support of regional elections appeared late on Tuesday as the chapeau to a lengthy and occasionally digressive series of tweets attempting to lay out the reasons for a series of apparently shifting stances on regional elections — both his own and those of the party he chairs.

Golkar members voted unanimously at a national convention last week on a platform opposing regional elections.

“At Golkar’s national convention in Bali [...] it was recommended that [regional leaders] should be elected through provincial legislative councils,” Aburizal tweeted. “The recommendation came from all 547 voting participants [of the convention] and 1,300 observers.”

The position of party delegates in Bali is clearly at odds, then, with that of Golkar’s leadership, which committed in October to a signed agreement with the opposition Red-White Coalition’s (KMP) then-five other constituent parties to support regional elections when the perppu comes before House legislators for a vote.

That agreement came to light last week when Yudhoyono, who chairs the Democratic Party, called out Aburizal in a tweet last Thursday for “retreating” on his committment.

Yudhoyono added that Golkar’s betrayal of the agreement abrogated the basis of the Democratic Party’s “understanding” with the Red-White Coalition.

Among the factors Aburizal cited in his decision to assume a public stance diametrically opposed to that voted upon at Golkar’s convention were: “a. people’s wishes to keep direct regional election b. the agreement in October between 6 parties [of the KMP] c. talks among parties in the KMP.”

Many of Golkar’s party faithful met Aburizal’s tweets with disbelief.

Golkar central leadership board executive Tantowi Yahya attempted to play down his chairman’s tweets.

“What [Aburizal] meant is that Golkar will respect the agreement by the six parties of the Red-White Coalition,” he said.

He argued, however, that Golkar would continue to reject the perppu, “because this is the mandate [of the convention].”

Similarly, Golkar House legislator Nurul Arifin pledged that “we will still fight for what the national convention mandated.”

However, Golkar politician Lalu Mara Satriawangsa, a close aide to Aburizal, said the conventioneers’ vote was not binding.

“The convention is no place to decide to reject or accept the perppu,” she said.

“The [vote] only serves as a recommendation. Golkar will support the perppu [as agreed]. This has not changed.”

Theofransus Litaay of Central Java’s Satya Wacana University said Aburizal’s stance “undermined the credibility of the national convention in Bali.”

A party convention, he said, is the highest authority of any party, since its members are also those who decide its chairman.

Theo predicted that Aburizal’s decision to defy the convention and support the perppu would erode his support within Golkar’s ranks and benefit his rival, Agung Laksono, who has moved for a vote of no confidence and set up his own rival convention and leadership board.

If Aburizal hopes that coming out in favor of regional elections — against the wishes of his party members — will earn broader public support, Theo said, the Golkar chair will find himself disappointed.

“[Aburizal] is being pragmatic. His stance does not show that he honestly supports people’s constitutional rights [to elect their local leaders],” he said.

Nico Harjanto of political think tank Populi Center agreed: “The change of stance reveals [he] is authoritarian [...] by ignoring the convention’s recommendations.”

One Golkar member told the Jakarta Globe that Aburizal’s shift had prompted some party loyalists to consider joining Agung Laksono’s camp. “First we reject direct elections and now we support it? We’re a laughing stock,” the source said.

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(JakGlobe) Aburizal Defies Golkar to Tweet Support for Elections