30-7-2023 (JAKARTA) Indonesia’s oldest political party, Golkar, is experiencing internal strife as it suffers a decline in popularity and internal disputes over which presidential candidate to support for February’s general election. The party’s public support has dropped from 12% four years ago to around 6% presently, and prominent Golkar members, including ministers Luhut Pandjaitan and Bahlil Lahadalia, are vying to take over the chairman’s post. They have placed the blame on current chairman Airlangga Hartarto.
In the 2019 election, Golkar won around 12% of the votes, securing 85 seats, making it the second-largest party in Parliament behind the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), which has 128 seats. The other seven parties in Parliament share the remaining 362 seats.
Political observers suspect that President Joko Widodo has a role to play in the feud within Golkar, given Mr Airlangga’s reluctance to support Mr Widodo’s favoured presidential candidate, Prabowo Subianto. Further complicating things, Mr Airlangga sent senior party representatives to a large rally held by a political party that is fielding former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan as its presidential candidate. This political gesture in support of Mr Anies was not received well by Mr Widodo’s inner circle.
Indonesia is likely to have a three-way presidential race on Feb 14, with the other contenders being Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo – backed by the PDI-P – and Mr Prabowo, currently Mr Widodo’s Defence Minister. Support from Golkar for Mr Prabowo is deemed very important and could determine whether he becomes the next president. Mr Prabowo is so far backed by only his Gerindra party and the National Awakening party (PKB), which together control 24% of Parliament, just above the 20% threshold needed to field a presidential candidate.
Observers have accused Mr Widodo of using legal pressure to weaken Mr Airlangga. On Monday, he was questioned for 12 hours by the Attorney-General’s office over a year-old corruption case involving the illegal export of cooking oil. Political analyst Rocky Gerung argued that Mr Widodo needs to have control over an influential political party to stay relevant after he steps down as president. Within the ruling PDI-P, Mr Widodo is not a party elite and has not been promised a strategic post when he hands over the presidency.
On the other hand, Golkar is known for having members with top-notch negotiation skills in Parliament. Its MPs have often managed to position the party as a parliamentary tie-breaker, earning Golkar the status of being one of Indonesia’s most influential political parties. Mr Widodo dismissed the speculation and attempted to set the record straight on Thursday by saying Golkar’s ongoing feud did not involve his administration.
