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Young executive challenges old guard




The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Thu, 07/16/2009 12:07 PM | Headlines

Party in crisis: Golkar Party chairman Jusuf Kalla waves at journalists before a leadership meeting at the party headquarters in Slipi, Central Jakarta, on Wednesday. JP/NURHAYATI

Party in crisis: Golkar Party chairman Jusuf Kalla waves at journalists before a leadership meeting at the party headquarters in Slipi, Central Jakarta, on Wednesday. JP/NURHAYATI

Competition for the top job at the Golkar Party is heating up after young party executive Yuddy Chrisnandi officially announced his bid for the chairman position Wednesday.

Previously, only two names — media magnate Surya Paloh and Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie — had been put forward as potential candidates for the post.

"I am ready to step forward. I am motivated by the defeats we suffered in both the legislative and presidential elections," Yuddy said following a Golkar plenary meeting at the party's head office in Slipi, West Jakarta.

"In my opinion, we were defeated because of endless internal fighting within the party," he added.
Golkar fared poorly in the legis-lative elections in April, managing to secure just 14 percent of the total vote.






In the recent presidential election, Indonesian vice president and current Golkar chairman Jusuf Kalla suffered a humiliating defeat, with independent surveys showing he won just a little more than 10 percent of the national vote.

Calls have been mounting ever since Kalla's failed bid for an urgent party meeting to decide on a replacement for Kalla. Ferry Mursyidan, a Golkar executive and legislator, said however that a specific party meeting would not be held just to discuss leadership issues.

"We [Golkar] will hold a national congress meeting on Oct. 20 to decide the new structure of the party," Ferry said to Antara news agency during an official visit to Manado, North Sulawesi.

Yuddy said he had put forward his name for a number of reasons, one being that many party members were tired with "old-hand executives spending a long time in the party's top posts".

Kalla welcomed Yuddy's candidacy, saying the 41-year-old lawmaker was ready for the position.

Aburizal said earlier that he was also ready to chair Golkar, the ruling party under the Soeharto regime.

Golkar deputy chairman and House of Representatives Speaker Agung Laksono claimed around 400 party branches at a regency level had thrown their support behind Aburizal.

Yuddy also claimed to have secured support from party colleagues, saying he has much to offer.

"I have three main priorities: internal reform, cultural reform and system reform within the party," he said. "The only thing I don’t have is the financial power to buy votes."

Political experts said Yuddy had a slim chance of winning the chairmanship, particularly as he would have to face his seniors.

"Yuddy has the capacity but not the funding. He has to face the reality that most of the party’s regional elite are pragmatic people,” an expert from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Lili Romli, told The Jakarta Post. (hdt)





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