Tommy has his eye on the presidency in 2019

JAKARTA. The little-known National Republic (Nasrep) Party may not be contesting this year’s legislative election but it has a big plans for 2019.

A national leadership meeting of the party on Wednesday decided that the party’s chief patron Hutomo Mandala Putra would be the party’s presidential candidate in the 2019 race. Hutomo, better known as Tommy Soeharto, is the youngest son of former president Soeharto who ruled the country under his authoritarian New Order regime for 32 years.

 “We are certain that we can nominate him. Because there’s so many people who still love Soeharto,” party chairperson Neneng A. Tuty said.

Neneng added that apart from nominating Tommy, the party also had other plans for 2019, including building a coalition with other parties. “We are going to build a good internal mentoring system for our membership, also build networks with other parties and form supporting wings,” she said.

Neneng was optimistic that the party could capitalize on the fondness of some voters for Soeharto and the party will systematically run campaigns to raise public awareness about the glory of his era.

One indication of popular nostalgia for the Soeharto era is the circulation of posters and stickers of Soeharto captioned with the question in Javanese: “Piye kabare? Iseh penak jamanku to?” which roughly translates as “How’s things? It was better in my time, eh?”

In a bid to woo voters from the lower-income bracket, the party has also drawn up platforms which include the empowerment of small enterprises in agriculture and fisheries to achieve national self-sufficiency in food supplies, one of the major goals of Soeharto’s development plan.

The Nasrep party was formed in 2011 and was deemed by the General Election Commission (KPU) ineligible to contest the 2014 legislative election.

The party has a number of controversial figures sitting on its executive boards including Muchdi Prawiro Pranjono, the former deputy of National Intelligence Agency (BIN), who was implicated, although later acquitted, in the murder of Munir.

Munir was a human rights activist who campaigned for investigations into the disappearance of pro-democracy activists during the twilight of the New Order regime.

Muchdi is not the only executive to have had legal problems. In 2002, Tommy himself was sentenced to 15 years in prison, although he served only four years, for masterminding the murder of Syafiuddin Kartasasmita, a Supreme Court judge.

Syafiuddin had sentenced Tommy to 18 months in prison and ordered him to pay Rp 30.6 billion (US$2.5 million) fines in a land-swap case involving State Logistics Agency (Bulog) and PT Goro Batara Sakti, a retail company. Tommy is not the only family member to try their luck in politics.

His sister Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana Tutut was a presidential candidate for her party, the National Functional Party (PKPB), while Ari Sigit was a presidential candidate for his party, the Functional Republic Party (PAKAR).

Another sibling, Siti Hediyati Hariyadi, better known as Titiek, who is divorced from Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party chief patron Lt. Gen. (ret) Prabowo Subianto, will run in the legislative election on a Golkar party ticket in one of Yogyakarta’s electoral districts. (gda)