Gerindra-Hanura Coalition on the Cards, Official Says

Fuente: 
Jakarta Globe
Fecha de publicación: 
13 Mayo 2014

Jakarta. One-time military rivals and now presidential aspirants Prabowo Subianto and Wiranto may be about to form a coalition ahead of the July 9 election, an official has hinted.

“We have a coalition partner, we just need to wait for the right time to announce it,” Ali Kastela, a member of the central executive board of Wiranto’s People’s Conscience Party, or Hanura, said in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Ali said Hanura “shares the same struggle” as Prabowo’s Great Indonesia Movement Party, or Gerindra, and noted that “there have never been differences in the past between Hanura and Gerindra.”

He added it was understandable if Prabowo, who has consistently polled higher than Wiranto, did not want to make Wiranto his running mate, saying that the latter did not have “overpowering ambitions” that would affect any coalition pact.

Ali said Hanura would also understand if Prabowo chose to run with Hatta Rajasa, the chairman of the National Mandate Party, of PAN, as his vice presidential candidate. Hattis expected to resign as the coordinating minister for the economy to join Prabowo’s ticket.

A Gerindra-Hanura alliance has always appeared unlikely, given the lasting animosity between Prabowo and Wiranto, which peaked 16 years ago this month as riots broke out that would eventually topple the strongman Suharto.

At the time, Wiranto was the head of the Indonesian military and Prabowo was the commander of the Army’s powerful Strategic Reserve Command, or Kostrad, and a son-in-law of Suharto’s. The pair was reportedly mired in a high-stakes spat about control of the military, and the country, as Suharto’s grip on power weakened.

Human rights activists allege that some of the rioting, particularly in Jakarta, was engineered by Prabowo to make Wiranto look weak, although both men have denied this.

But talk of Hanura joining Gerindra’s coalition came earlier this month from Fuad Bawazier, a senior Gerindra official, who said the two parties were in discussions on a possible coalition.

Fuad also said that Hanura had little chance of joining the coalition of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, or PDI-P, whose candidate, Joko Widodo, is the clear favorite to win the presidency.

The PDI-P has partnered with the National Democrat Party, or NasDem, whose former chief patron, media mogul Hary Tanoesoedibjo, now holds that same position at Hanura, after a high-profile split with NasDem over its naming of rival TV magnate Surya Paloh as its chairman.

 

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