Kalla, Aburizal meet to talk about Golkar

JAKARTA. Vice President Jusuf Kalla says he met with Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie to discuss the conflict that has ravaged the country’s second-largest political party.

Kalla told reporters on Tuesday that the two discussed a number of issues, including how to initiate a reconciliation process within the party.

“We have talked about a lot of things, including of course Golkar,” Kalla said as quoted by tribunnews.com.

Rival camps in the party filed lawsuits aimed at one another, with each camp seeking to disband what they deemed illegal leadership of the party.

The decision to elect Agung Laksono as party chairman — a move that directly challenged the leadership of Aburizal — sparked some of the most intense infighting in the party’s history.

Agung was named Golkar chairman in a breakaway congress in Jakarta early in December. The congress was organized by the party’s splinter faction, also led by Agung, which did not recognize the congress held by rival Aburizal in Bali a week earlier.

In December, Aburizal’s supporters unsuccessfully attempted to take over the party’s headquarters in West Jakarta.