Kalla's last hurrah JAKARTA, May 9 It is easy to be persuaded that everything that has gone on in the deeply-divided Golkar party over the past few months may have been an elaborate charade, designed to railroad Indonesian Vice-President Jusuf Kalla and perhaps to earn some leverage in the process.
Short of an unforeseen dive in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's fortunes, Kalla's partnership with former General Wiranto of the People's Conscience Party (Hanura) as running mate is looking very much like an honourable exit or what one member calls "a final solution". But however badly he does in the July 9 presidential election, one thing is for sure: Golkar will almost certainly be back in the embrace of Yudhoyono's majority Democratic Party by year's end, if not a good deal sooner. Golkar won't get the vice-presidency this time, but Yudhoyono will ensure it has enough Cabinet seats to guarantee at least a large measure of its loyalty in the new 560-seat House of Representatives. Yudhoyono's choice of a semi-independent running mate, such as Central Bank governor Boerdiono or State Secretary Hatta Radjasa, would take a lot of the usual party horse-trading out of play. These two certainly appear to be the front runners ahead of the scheduled announcement on Monday, but nothing is certain. As one minister said: "SBY just loves to make us all speculate until the very end." As a minority leader in 2004, Yudhoyono found himself an unwitting hostage to Golkar's will. This time around, he is dealing from a position of strength and is being urged to put his stamp on the new administration from the get-go. If boldness becomes the President's new-found friend, that may mean more technocrats and non-party people in key posts to push the government's unfinished reform agenda and secure the President's 10-year legacy. This is, after all, a presidential system. While Yudhoyono must work with Parliament, his ministers say that the number of seats in Parliament does not really count when money takes precedence over party discipline. The numbers game everyone loves to follow is simply that a game. It will remain so until the main political parties understand what they stand for and lawmakers represent the constituents who elect them. Kalla's fate was sealed early last month when Yudhoyono's Democratic team asked Golkar to suggest two other nominees, in addition to Kalla, as the President's running mate. It now seems clear that in turning his back on the Golkar chairman, the President was also taking care to send a message to former leader Akbar Tandjung and other Kalla rivals that he still valued Golkar in a new coalition. Ministerial sources say that while Yudhoyono and Kalla are not the bitter rivals media reports have always suggested, the President was particularly irritated over Kalla's remark in early 2006 that he was being treated like a spare tyre. For some analysts, the impulsive Sulawesi businessman had in fact become a fifth wheel who had more power than any vice-president before him and was often not slow in using it admittedly, sometimes to the good. The Vice-President must have realised months ago that with his support in Golkar dwindling and the polls forecasting the party's worst-ever showing in the April 9 legislative elections, he was living on borrowed time. But he was still encouraged to get out and run. Even so, party sources say that while he was given a full mandate to explore the possibility of putting together a coalition to run for the presidency, he was asked to report back to the party before making a decision. The fact that he chose Wiranto without doing that earned him a rebuke from the party's district chapters, many of whom are Tandjung loyalists. A majority of the 33 provincial chapters now want to go back to the Democrats. It all seems rather cruel, frankly. But then Tandjung, for one, remembers how he was undermined by Kalla years ago when he unwisely sought to take Golkar into a coalition with Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle. Meanwhile, with the Vice- President seemingly on the ropes, Chief Welfare Minister Aburizal Bakrie appears to be the leading contender to assume the chairmanship of Golkar at the party's convention, which has now been brought forward from December to August. Party sources claim that Kalla advanced the date so he could still use the power of the vice-presidency to put forward political ally Surya Paloh, head of the party's advisory council, as his replacement. Whether that will work at this point is doubtful. Despite several business setbacks, Bakrie has been Golkar's leading financier and, according to insiders, continues to provide 10 billion rupiah (RM3.4 million) a month to cover the party's administrative expenses. Straits Times
