Golkar Party lawmaker Poempida Hidayatulloh has lashed out at the party’s chief advisor Akbar Tanjung for his double standards related to members who refuse to follow the party’s decision to support Great Indonesian Movement Party, or Gerindra, presidential hopeful Prabowo Subianto and his running mate Hatta Rajasa.
Poempida, who supports Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle’s (PDI-P) presidential candidate Joko Widodo, also known as Jokowi, and his running mate, former vice president and former Golkar chairman, Jusuf Kalla, described Akbar as inconsistent and discriminative.
“One of Golkar Party’s platforms is to be non-discriminative. I was shocked to hear Akbar Tanjung’s statement which said that those who support Jokowi-JK must be fired, but that JK could not be fired because he is a vice presidential candidate,” Poempida said on Wednesday.
Poempida and a score of younger politicians such as Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita, Indra J Piliang, and Meutya Hafidz have expressed their support for Joko-Kalla.
Poempida said Akbar’s statement was inconsistent with the party’s non-discriminative principle.
“What Akbar said about loyalty will become vague. Did he mean loyalty to the party’s authority or to the party chairman’s policy? It’s clear that Golkar’s statute cannot be personified by a chairman,” he said.
Nevertheless, Poempida said he could understand why Akbar issued such a statement, saying that it was to legitimate his decision when he fired Fahmi Idris and other Golkar members who supported Jusuf Kalla as a vice presidential candidate in the 2004 presidential election.
“There’s no need to explain what happened in 2004. This is so that everyone can learn from that momentum for the best interests of Golkar,” he said.
“This is 2014 not 2004, let’s open a new chapter.”
Golkar’s 2004 convention decided to nominate Wiranto as the party’s presidential candidate and Salahuddin Wahid from the National Awakening Party as his running mate.
However, the Democratic Party which nominated Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as its presidential candidate picked Jusuf Kalla as its vice presidential candidate and they went on to win the election.
Indra J. Piliang, head of Golkar’s Research Division, said he is ready if Golkar decided to fire him as a party member.
Indra said he was behind the Joko-Kalla ticket and he would be happy to offer his suggestions to the campaign team for materials if he was asked to.
“I have been asked to join the campaign team today but I will have to check with Golkar first,” Indra said.
“I’ll settle everything with Golkar first and then I will start to get actively involved in the campaign for Joko-Kalla.”
Indra also said he had set up a forum called the Indonesian Youth Paradigm Movement Forum which was composed of young Golkar members wanting to help Joko-Kalla win the presidential election.
“The forum will not only be limited to Golkar members but students are also welcome to join,” said Indra.
Golkar’s deputy chief advisor Luhut Panjaitan and the only remaining Golkar founder Suhardiman also said that they would back Joko-Kalla.
Suhardiman, who is also the founder of the Indonesian Workers Union (Soksi), said he has ordered all Soksi members to support Joko-Kalla, saying the pair are more down to earth compared to Prabowo-Hatta.
“As the founder of Soksi I have the power of veto and I will fire members if they don’t follow my instruction. Ade Komaruddin has agreed to follow my instruction to support Joko-Jusuf Kalla and I can revoke anyone if they don’t follow my instructions,” Suhardiman said.
Ade, who is the chairman of Soksi, is known to be a supporter of Golkar chairman Aburizal Bakrie, who tied the party to Prabowo’s coalition.
Suhardiman said that he instructed Ade and Soksi secretary general Lawrence Siburian to support Joko-Kalla when the duo visited his house on Monday night and that both have agreed to follow his order.
Luhut on Wednesday said he had sent his letter of resignation to Golkar.
Luhut on Tuesday praised Joko’s so-called cooperative coalition, saying that it was a small but a solid alliance and that it was much better than a single large coalition that was founded on power sharing.
“We all understand that the president and vice president are chosen by the people, not parties. Those parties will only fight for ministerial posts and other power,” he said.
Golkar deputy treasurer Bambang Soesatyo said the party should not make a big deal out of the division, saying such a split was normal in politics.
“It will not sink the big ship called Golkar Party,” said Bambang, adding that Golkar members were also not united behind candidates during the 2004 and 2009 elections.
Bambang said that all Golkar members would have given their full support if Prabowo’s running mate was Aburizal.
NasDem Party chairman Surya Paloh, himself a former Golkar member, said the division within the party was logical and voters should understand disagreements within a party are par for the course, especially when it came to election time and big decisions had to be made.
However, Surya added he respects the lawmakers who stood by their principles and could understand if they wanted to move from Golkar but at the same time he hoped the party could retain its unity.
Source/Fuente: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/akbar-threatening-fire-dissenters-pa...
