Bakrie Relents

Sitting across the desk from Aburizal Bakrie in his office on the 46th floor of the Bakrie Tower in Kuningan, South Jakarta, on Tuesday morning last week, was Akbar Tandjung, who had invited him to talk, man to man. The matter at hand: the Golkar Party's stance against a proposed government regulation in lieu of law (perpu) that rejected an earlier regulation banning direct elections for governors, regents and mayors across the archipelago. The two Golkar politicians had previously pushed the law.

Akbar warned Aburizal of the risks of continuing to reject the decree, even though it had been a prime recommendation of Golkar's recent national congress in Nusa Dua, Bali, where Aburizal had been re-elected party chairman. Akbar warned that, should Aburizal insist on following the congress' recommendation, Golkar would likely suffer in the 2019 elections. What is more, he added, Aburizal and Golkar were already bound by a political contract with the rest of the parties in the coalition that supported Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party Chairman Prabowo Subianto's failed bid for the presidency to support the perpu.