'Defiant' party execs just reprimanded: Aburizal

JAKARTA. Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie has backtracked from his earlier move of dismissing party executives who challenged his leadership.

Aburizal said that he only reprimanded some party executives, including Coordinating People’s Welfare Minister Agung Laksono, the party’s deputy chairman.

He also maintained that the politicians had been given a deadline to accept the party’s decision to join the permanent so-called Red-and-White coalition, which supported the presidential ticket of Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa, and that a national congress would only take place next year.

“Golkar’s central executive board just held a plenary meeting that reiterated two formal decisions; first to hold a national congress in 2015 and second to join the Red-and-White coalition,” Aburizal said.

Aburizal, who has encountered strengthening opposition from within Golkar, also said that Agung, as well as other party executives, must “leave this organization” if they refused to follow the decisions that had been made.

“In democracy, you can have different opinions. That applies if an agreement has been reached. Therefore, if they refuse to obey policies that have been implemented, they are not supposed to be inside [the party’s executive board] any longer,” he said.

Earlier, numerous Golkar executives known to be loyal to Aburizal, confirmed that a number of Golkar politicians had been suspended from their positions in the party for refusing to support the party’s move to endorse the Prabowo-Hatta ticket and making attempts to expedite a national congress to unseat Aburizal.

Deputy secretary-general Tantowi Yahya said that the suspended Golkar executives were Agung, Yorrys Raweyai, Leo Nababan, Djasri Marin, Andi Sinulingga and Sabil Rahman.

Aburizal said he had privately met with Agung and told him about the party’s decision. “He [Agung] said he could understand it,” he said.

Also on Tuesday, Tantowi clarified that the “defiant” Golkar members were just given “warnings” and had not been suspended.

The rift within the Golkar Party began after the party failed to win big in the April 9 legislative election. Many senior Golkar politicians attributed the party’s abysmal showing in the election to Aburizal’s low electability and tarnished public image.

To make matters worse, Aburizal made the controversial move of supporting Prabowo-Hatta instead of Joko “Jokowi” Widodo-Jusuf Kalla, even though Kalla was a Golkar member.

Many Golkar politicians openly rejected the endorsement of Prabowo-Hatta and instead opted to support Jokowi-Kalla in the July 9 race.

Kalla himself has launched a move to engineer a Bakrie ouster.

On July 19, he gathered a number of senior members at his private residence in South Jakarta to discuss an expedited national congress. Party politicians who attended the meeting were, Ginandjar Kartasasmita, Fahmi Idris, Agung, Andi Mattalatta and Yorrys.

In recent months, Aburizal has garnered support from many Golkar provincial branches for sticking to the 2015 succession plan.

“Party members at the local level remain solid and there has been no demand for expediting the congress. The party machinery has been working normally,” deputy chairman of Golkar’s Banten provincial branch, Very Muhlis Arifuzzaman, said.

Although there has been no certainty as to when or if the expedited national congress will take place this year, Agung and party advisor MS Hidayat have come out to be the strongest contenders to replace Aburizal.

Agung and Hidayat, who is currently the industry minister, have been aggressively touring regions to win the support of the party’s regional and local executives.

With Agung now sidelined, Hidayat could be a frontrunner in the race, with reports saying that he had secured approval from Kalla to lead the party. (Bagus BT Saragih)