As thousands of Democrats gather this weekend in Sentul under an
ever-increasing cloud of scandal, speculation is mounting over whether
the embattled ruling party can emerge still standing.
Party
officials, besieged by one accusation after another by fugitive and
former colleague Muhammad Nazaruddin, have acknowledged the two-day
national coordination meeting is needed to regroup and strengthen their
solidarity.
But they have also maintained that there will not be any attempts to
unseat party chairman Anas Urbaningrum, who has been the primary target
of Nazaruddin’s attacks.
Is Anas in Danger?
Benny
K. Harman, the party’s deputy chairman for legal affairs, surprised
journalists on Thursday by saying “anything was possible” during the
meeting — even a reshuffle of the party’s executive board or changes to
the wider structure of the party.
“This is a coordination
meeting, so we will use it to evaluate,” he said.
Even though
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the head of the party’s advisory
board, has already said there would be no challenge to the party’s
leadership during the meeting, Benny said the “probability theory” does
exist.
He admitted there had been talk among party members of a
possible reshuffle and speculation around the possibility of electing
new leaders.
“These voices [that want changes] are the dynamics
within the party. And we must listen to them,” Benny said.
Muhammad
Qodari, the director of polling institute IndoBarometer, said the party
was not in short supply of possible replacements for Anas, whose
election last year to the party’s chairmanship has also been put under
doubt by Nazaruddin’s claims of vote buying.
He cited the two
other contenders for the party chairmanship — Youth and Sports Affairs
Minister Andi Mallarangeng and House of Representatives Speaker Marzuki
Alie. Mallarangeng was widely believed to have been Yudhoyono’s first
choice for the chairmanship, and Alie is said to have had the
president’s support after Andi lost in the first round of the election.
According
to Qodari, even the first lady, Ani Yudhoyono, had a chance to replace
Anas. “There are voices from the regions demanding that Ibu Ani take the
party’s top seat, but the number is not that significant,” he said.
Besides,
he added, Yudhoyono would never allow his wife to take over the party
while it was going through perhaps its worst crisis since its founding
in 2001.
Qodari also said it was unlikely anyone would want the
job at this point.
“I don’t think anyone would want Anas’s job
right now,” he said. “Everyone would think they might be the next target
of Nazaruddin’s assault.”
Plague of Accusations
The
past few weeks have been difficult for Anas, at one time seen as a
possible presidential candidate in 2014. He has been forced to defend
himself against a barrage of accusations, the least of which was buying
his way to the party’s chairmanship.
In a phone interview with
Metro TV from an undisclosed lo cation, Nazaruddin said Anas had
collected $20 million from various sources in the run-up to the party
congress last year, which he used to buy votes to secure the
chairmanship.
“The money was, of course, from the state budget,
from state projects,” Nazaruddin claimed.
The graft fugitive
claimed that voting regional chapters received up to $80,000 each to
cast their ballots for Anas.
Anas was quick to deny buying
votes. He said that while his campaign team did spend some money during
last year’s congress to pay the transportation and accommodation fees
for supporters, “it should not be seen as money politics.”
A top
official from the Papua branch of the party backed Anas on Thursday,
saying that all they received was an allowance for transportation.
“I
supported Anas Urbaningrum from the beginning so I was ready to vote
for him even if I didn’t get anything. However, every branch office did
receive Rp 20 million [$2,300] for transportation from the [national]
congress committee, ” said Lukas Enembe, the Democratic Party’s Papua
branch chairman.
“The convention committee gave us Rp 600
million and we used it to send 300 party members from Papua,” he added.
This
practice, Lukas said, was perfectly normal.
“The money was not
compensation to support one of the candidates,” he said.
Nazaruddin
has also accused Anas of taking kickbacks from state projects and
making a deal with Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy
Chandra M. Hamzah in order to avoid being dragged into the investigation
of a major graft scandal at the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.
The
former Democrat treasurer is a suspect in the same case, which centers
on the construction of an athletes’ village in Palembang for the
Southeast Asian Games in November.
“It’s another one of
Nazaruddin’s hallucinations,” Anas said on Wednesday.
A
Party in Panic?
Despite the worsening scandal, other
Democrat officials denied Benny’s statement that a leadership reshuffle
was possible this weekend.
The party’s deputy chairman, Max
Supacoa, has called a reshuffle an impossibility. He said the gathering
in Sentul was simply a national meeting, and the party’s basic rules
would not allow for a special congress to elect a new chairman.
“We
have been planning this for a year now, so it’s clear that we’re not
suddenly holding this meeting because of the cases related to
Nazaruddin,” Max said.
The meeting will primarily be about the
programs and the work of the Democrats,” he said. “There’s no special
congress. I am a deputy chairman of the party, so I know.”
Saan
Mustopha, the party’s deputy secretary general, also said that since
Yudhoyono had already emphasized there would be no special congress,
speculating on the possibility of one was a waste of time.
That,
however, has not calmed the speculation, which was further fueled when
the president summoned Anas to the State Palace on Wednesday night.
But
Saan said the meeting was for nothing more than Anas to report on the
progress for the weekend meeting.
Mallarangeng, the secretary of
the party’s advisory council, affirmed Saan’s statement. He added that
the weekend’s meeting would focus on party improvement and
introspection.
“We were just consolidating preparations for the
coordination meeting, and as the secretary, I accompanied the head of
the advisory council last night,” he said.
Saan said that while
there would be talk of leadership positions during the meeting, it would
only be to deal with existing vacancies.
“There are some
positions that we need to look at, such as the treasurer’s position.
It’s now empty, so it’s mandatory that we should fill it with someone
else,” he said.
Saan also reiterated that Democrats should
ignore any of the accusations being made by Nazaruddin.
After
all, he said, “why should they listen to and think about statements that
are coming from a fugitive?”
Saan emphasized the party was
working to resolve the Nazaruddin case, and that none of the party’s
work was being ignored.
IndoBarometer’s Qodari says this is just
as well, because even if the party replaces Anas, its problems won’t be
solved as long as Nazaruddin continues to be a thorn in the Democrats’
side.
Additional reporting by Febriamy Hutapea, Banjir
Ambarita & Arientha Primanita