Jakarta,
June 12 (Antara) - Amid public doubts over dedicated political party
cadres, the ruling Democratic Party (PD) is planning to launch a
national convention to net would-be presidential candidates.
This is one of the ways a political party can take to find a qualified presidential candidate from external figures.
However,
of the 12 political parties eligible to contest in the legislative
elections on April 9 next year, only the ruling Democratic Party (PD)
has decided to launch a semi-convention.
The
PD so far has yet to decide its presidential candidate in the face of
the presidential election scheduled to take place on July 9, 2014.
Political
parties winning 20 percent of the 560 parliamentary seats at stake or
25 percent of the valid votes in the next legislative elections are
entitled to nominate their presidential hopefuls for the presidential
elections.
Therefore,
PD considers that holding a national convention is a factual need to
seek for a presidential candidate for the presidential race.
"All
presidential candidates of political parties are doubted (by the
public). None of them are really favored. But I do not believe that this
big nation has no dedicated leaders," Ahmad Mubarok, a member of PD's
Board of Patrons, said last week.
He said that the Democratic Party had no internal or external figures
who were favored because all of them were questioned (by the public).
The longer a figure puts him or herself on ads the more questions the
public would raise.
Thus,
Ahmad Mubarok said, his party would hold a national convention to
provide a gate for potential candidates who had no political vehicles to
the presidential race.
"This
is a true convention because in realities, the party has no internal
figures who are appropriate to be nominated as a candidate. However,
there are possibly external figures out there who they do not have a
chance and a political vehicle. So, we are opening an opportunity for
them," Ahmad said.
Deputy
General Chairman of the Democratic Party Max Sopacua said his party
would organize a national convention with a semi-open system to net a
presidential candidate. The convention will be carried out by a
committee which is to be established in the middle of June 2013.
The committee is expected to net figures and select a presidential
candidate among them. In carrying out the agenda, the committee will
cooperate with survey institutions to assess the electability and
credibility of candidates.
According to Ahmad Mubarok, his party was serious in its intention to
launch a national convention because it will involve the public and
vocal figures in providing inputs. Therefore, he refuted the assumption
that the party would hold a convention only as a means of improving its
image.
Many have assumed that actually the Democratic Party already had its own presidential hopeful.
"We will organize the convention because we do not have one. Other
political parties will nominate their own general chairmen but our
general chairman could no longer be nominated as a presidential
candidate (because he has served two terms as the country's president).
So, we really have no appropriate candidate," Ahmad said referring to PD
General Chairman Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono who by the Constitution could
no longer be nominated for the third term.
Political
observers like Budiatna and Iberamsjah of the University of Indonesia
as well as Toto Sugiarto of the Sugeng Saryadi Syndicate (SSS) said PD's
decision to launch a convention was an effort to improve its negative
image.
"The Democratic Party, like other political parties whose
image is now not so good, cleverly accommodates clean men. It is just
like a public minivan, because it is vacant of passengers, then it
offers seats to passenger for free," Budiatna said.
He said that the absence of clean internal figures had led the party to take a realistic step to improve its image.
The plan of external figures such as Mahfud MD (former chairman of the
Constitutional Court), Gita Wirjwan (trade minister) and Dahlan Iskan
(state-enterprise minister) to take part in the convention was a good
chance for the PD to improve its image.
"Because PD is not in 'good sale' they offer it for free to other
people. It offers to all people viewed by the public as clean figures,"
he said adding that this step would be mutually beneficial between the
party and those who had no political vehicles.
Political analyst Toto Sugiarto of the Sugeng Saryadi Syndicate (SSS) also has the same opinion.
He said that the party would hold a convention to improve its image in
the eyes of the public and to show as if it heard the public
aspirations. But according to the SSS political analyst, the party
indeed already had its own presidential candidate. Thus, the convention
will only serve as a means of improving its image as if the party had
been democratic.
"The semi-open convention indicates that the
party is not serious in seeking external candidates. This will not be
good for the Democratic Party ahead because it will prove that the party
is full of dishonesty and tricks," he said.
He said that with a semi open system, participants of the convention
would be decided by the party elites. "If a convention is to be held it
must really be open, transparent and assessment should be carried out by
all stakeholders not by the party elite only.
Besides, he said that he was suspicious of certain deals that could
arise between certain candidates and the party elite through the holding
of a semi-convention. Thus, convention will not become a decisive
factor in selecting a candidate.
Toto said that the statements made by a number of PD leaders who
offered the convention to national figures indicated that they were not
serious in organizing the convention.
He said that he was afraid the national figures would only be used to
create image and to show that the Democratic Party was an open party by
inviting them to its convention.
After all, according to political analyst Iberamsjah, all political
parties already had in mind their own respective presidential
candidates.
He said it was difficult for external figures like Dahlan Iskan and
Gita Wirjawan to become a presidential hopeful because all political
parties already had their own candidates.
Political parties will be firm to support their internal figures to
become candidates. Convention will not be carried out seriously.
"The Democratic Party's plan to launch a convention, for example, is
only a trick. This means that external candidates such as Dahlan and
Gita will not have a political vehicle," he said.***1***
(T.A014/O001 )
(T.SYS/A/A. Abdussalam/A/O. Tamindael) 12-06-2013 |
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