GOLKAR TO DECIDE ON COALITION NEXT WEEK

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, April 14 (ANTARA) - Winner of the 2004 legislative election, the Golkar Party, whose voter turnout dropped significantly in last Thursday's polls, will decide whether to maintain its coalition with the Democratic Party (DP) or to coalesce with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) next week.

        The former political machine of the New Order government will hold a special national leadership meeting on April 23, 2009 to reconsider the previous decision of its provincial branches to nominate Golkar Chairman Jusuf Kalla as its presidential hopeful.

        "The Golkar Party will at a special national leadership meeting next April 23 decide whether to continue coalescing with the DP or join the PDIP as opposition party," Golkar Party Deputy Secretary General Rully Chairul Azwar said on Tuesday.

        If the leadership meeting decides to continue its coalition with the Democratic Party, Golkar will likely nominate one of its cadres to pair up as a running mate with Susilo Bambang Yudhohyono, the DP's presidential hopeful.

        "The special meeting will of course take into account the electability of a cadre before Golkar decides to nominate him or her as a vice presidential candidate to pair up with Yudhoyono," Azwar said.

        Before last Thursday's legislative polls, Golkar regional branches have decided to nominate Jusuf Kalla, its general chairman, as its presidential candidate. The provincial branches made the decision to nominate Kalla as Golkar presidential hopeful because Golkar was convinced it would secure 30 percent of the votes, above the 20 percent required by the law for a political party to nominate its own presidential candidate.

        However, in Thursday's polls, Golkar, based on a quick count only won about 13.95 percent, making it difficult to nominate its own presidential candidate in accordance with the willingness of its regional branches.

        Deputy Secretary General of Golkar Rully Chairul Azwar said that Golkar should discuss again its regional branches support for the nomination of Jusuf Kalla as Golkar's presidential candidate.

        "Before the elections, Kalla was picked up by regional branches to be nominated as Golkar's presidential hopeful. Now, they have to discuss their support again," Azwar said.

        If the leadership meeting decides to maintain coalition with the DP, Golkar will propose one candidate for the vice presidency to accompany Yudhohono as a running mate.

        Other sources said, however, that Golkar and Democrat Party have built political communications up to the stage of discussing a vice presidential candidate which would be submitted by the Golkar Party. In this case, Golkar would decide three cadres in leadership meeting.

        Azwar responded to this issue cautiously saying that he had no knowledge about the three candidates scenario because a candidate would be decided in the special meeting.

        In the meantime, Golkar Deputy Chairman Agung Laksono said his party should take a realistic step and not force itself in nominating its own presidential candidate because it was not the winner of last Thursday's legislative elections. "The Golkar regional branch leaders' support for the Golkar chairman to run for president should be reconsidered," Agung Laksono said.

        The discourse on the need for Golkar to adopt a realistic step had begun to roll on among the Golkar elite. The same discourse on the need for Golkar to continue its coalition with the Democrat Party was also gaining strong support.

        After all, Jusuf Kalla met with Yudhoyono on Monday night which the media described as a signal that Golkar was moving closer to building coalition with the Democrat Party.

        But Laksono who is also the House Speaker, said that he did not know the details of what Jusuf Kalla and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono discussed during their meeting.

        Kalla himself following his meeting with Yudhoyono did not gave any statement. Yudhoyono, who is the chairman of the Democrat Party's board of patrons, described the meeting as an ordinary encounter.

        "There was nothing special in the meeting," he said on Tuesday about his meeting with Jusuf Kalla who is also the incumbent vice president. The president's statement might be construed as readiness for the Democrat Party to coalesce with Golkar even if without Kalla.

        "Yudhoyono will need Golkar. I think Yudhoyono will take another cadre from Golkar like Akbar Tanjung or Agung Laksono," chairman of the National Awakening Party (PKB) Faction in the House of Representatives (DPR), Effendy Choirie said.

        He said that besides Kalla, former Golkar chairman Akbar Tanjung and DPR Deputy chairman Agung Laksono had the chance to pair up with Yudhoyono as a presidential ticket for the DP-Golkar coalition.

        PKB is one the political parties --along with the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the National Mandate Party (PAN)-- believed to be going to coalesce with the Democrat Party.

        However, with the plan of Golkar to join the alliance, PKS, which is targeting the vice presidency with Yudhohono, has threatened to quit the coalition.

        Political scientist Syamsuddin Haris of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) said if PKS threatened to quit, Yudhoyono should he chooses one of them, would surely coalesce with Golkar rather than with PKS.

        "If it coalesces with Golkar, however, Kalla's chance to become Yudhoyono's running mate would be very small," Haris was quoted by Media Indonesia as saying.***1*** (T.A014/H-NG ) (T.A014/A/A014/A/E002) 14-04-2009 23:28:01