A Test into One-Term Chairmanship Tradition

Since the National Mandate Party (PAN) was founded in 1998, none of its chairmans have served more than one term. The PAN Congress V will serve as an opportunity to test such tradition and also to test Amien Rais\' luck.

ANTARA FOTO/JOJON

A participant of the fifth congress of the National Mandate Party (PAN) disembarks from a bus on Sunday (09/2/2020) in Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi. One of the agenda items for the party congress, which runs 10-12 Feb. 2020, is to select its party chairman for the 2020-2025 term.

The main thoroughfares in Kendari City, Southeast Sulawesi, on Monday (10/02/2020), are full of blue flags bearing the logo of PAN. Billboards showing the faces of PAN chairman Zulkifli Hasan, PAN ethics council deputy chairman Dradjad H. Wibowo, as well as PAN deputy chairmen Mulfachri Harahap and Asman Abnur also lined up along the main roads in the Southeast Sulawesi province.

PAN’s national congress kicked off on Monday with its main agenda of electing the party’s chairman for the 2020-2025 period. Four candidates will compete for the party top post.

Three prospective candidates, namely Asman, Mulfachri and Dradjad, registered on Saturday (08/02/2020) at PAN headquarters in Jakarta. While one candidate, Zulkifli Hasan, only registered on the last day of registration on Monday at the congress location in Kendari.

The number of prospective candidates at the congress is the most compared to the previous three congresses which only saw two candidates competing for the top post. The competition is expected to be tight because the four prospective candidates are equally blessed by senior party figures as well as support from the party executives in the regions.

Mulfachri, for example, has the support of the founder and chairman of PAN’s ethics council, Amien Rais, who was a central figure in three previous congresses. Amien was the deciding factor in the election of the party chairman. To smoothen his candidacy, he brings along Amien\'s eldest son, Hanafi Rais, as a candidate for secretary-general.

Zulkifli who is the incumbent, no longer has the support of Amien.

Asman was supported by a senior figure who was also chairman of PAN for the 2010-2015 period, Hatta Rajasa. With that support, it is probable that the former administrative and bureaucratic reform minister has adequate logistics.

Dradjad, although not directly supported, he was one of Amien\'s closest men. At Amien\'s request, Dradjad willingly resigned from the election of party chairman at PAN Congress III in Batam, Riau Islands, in 2010.

In fact, at that time he had the full support from the PAN chairman in 2005-2010 term Soetrisno Bachir as well as hundreds of party executives in the regency and province DPD and DPW. It was Dradjad\'s decision that made Hatta smoothly got elected as general chairman.

Meanwhile, Zulkifli who is the incumbent, no longer has the support of Amien. However, the deputy speaker of the People\'s Consultative Assembly received a lot of support from PAN senior executives. A number of names, such as deputy chairperson Viva Yoga Mauladi and Totok Daryanto, secretary-general Eddy Soeparno and party leader Yandri Susanto, became his success team.

KOMPAS/SAIFUL RIJAL YUNUS

Name tags are readied on Sunday (9/2/2020) for the National Mandate Party (PAN) Congress V in Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi. As many as 10,000 people are expected to attend the party congress, which runs 10-12 Feb. 2020 and is being held in eastern Indonesia for the first time.

Candidate’s campaign

Long before the congress was held, the party chairman nominees had carried out campaigns, seeking support from regency executives and provincial executives who had collected the most votes in the congress. In fact, several times, Zulkifli and Mulfachri, invited the officials for consolidation.

The last time, Mulfachri held a consolidation in Surabaya, East Java, on 6-7 Feb. 2020. The meeting was not only attended by DPD and DPW executives, but it was also attended by Amien and Hanafi. At least 298 voters from the DPW and DPD were present and claimed to provide support to Mulfachri. There are 590 total voting owners at the Congress.

Same as Mulfachri, Zulkifli also organized the last consolidation meeting in Makassar, South Sulawesi, on 7-8 Feb. 2020. Although Amien was not present, the number of DPW and DPD officials who attended the meeting reached 392 people.

Meanwhile, Asman and Dradjad chose to approach the voters directly. Although they did not conduct open consolidation like Mulfachri and Zulkifli, both received support from their loyalists. Support also came from loyal followers of senior figures who supported Dradjad or Asman.

KOMPAS/WAWAN H PRABOWO

National Mandate Party (PAN) Congress V steering committee secretary Saleh Partaonan Daulay (right) welcomes PAN deputy chairman Asman Abnur (center) on Saturday (8/2/2020), during the registration of candidates for the party chairmanship at PAN’s Jakarta headquarters. The 2020-2025 PAN chairman is to be selected at the party’s fifth national congress on 10-12 Feb. 2020 in Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi.

Tight competition

Although there were four candidates who will compete in the congress, intense competition was only seen between Zulkifli and Mulfachri. The intense competition made conditions heat up a few hours before the congress opened on Monday night. Mulfachri\'s camp accused Zulkifli of cheating for registering outside the designated places.

"I heard he [Zulkifli] registered in Makassar, outside the designated place for registration," said Asri Anas, chairman of PAN West Sulawesi chapter, who is also the field coordinator of the Mulfachri campaign team,.

In fact, in reality, Zulkifli registered at the congress location in accordance with previous plans. It\'s just that Zulkifli\'s registration schedule continues to change, from 10 a.m. local time, to 11 a.m. and then at 1 p.m., until finally he only submitted his registration form at 4 p.m. or three hours before the congress opens.

Also, there was circulating short message, which is believed to be from the chairman of PAN Honorary Council Amien Rais for Zulkifli and PAN secretary general Eddy Soeparno.

"My advice is do not let your greed for power make it hard for you to distinguish between haq [right] and bathil [wrong]," said Amien through a short message.

For a long time, Amien has emphasized the tradition to maintain the one-term of office for party chairman.

Since PAN was founded in 1998, there has never been a single chairman who has served for two terms.

Ahead of the 2015 congress in Bali, for example, Amien repeatedly expressed the importance of regeneration within PAN. That is, each chairman must be willing to serve only for one term.

The importance of regeneration at the helm of PAN leadership was also reiterated by Amien while attending the consolidation of the DPW and DPD management supporters of Mulfachri in Surabaya. According to him, regeneration is a natural reason to maintain democracy and achieve the target of the party in the next five years.

Since PAN was founded in 1998, there has never been a single chairman who has served for two terms. Hatta, who returned to compete in the Congress IV in Bali, failed to win the election.

After registering, Zulkifli claimed, actually there was no intention from him to compete for the chairmanship again. However, apparently 30 DPW asked him to go forward. It was this request that encouraged him to run again.

Actually, if you look at the party statute (AD/ART), PAN does not prohibit the chairman from serving more than one period. However, according to a lecturer in political communication at the Paramadina University, Hendri Satrio, the tradition for a PAN chairman to serve for one period is difficult to break. Zulkifli could be re-elected if he received the blessing of Amien. So far history records that candidate which got blessing from the PAN founder could not be defeated.

CSIS researcher Arya Fernandes is of the view that Zulkifli still has a chance to lead PAN again. That opportunity is very dependent on the solidity of vote support for other candidates. "If many new candidates advance, Zulkifli has the opportunity to be re-elected, because the votes of non-incumbent candidates are split," he said.

Zulkifli’s chances also rely on the evaluation by the congress participants of the performance of PAN executives for the 2015-2020 period, especially in the 2019 election. In addition, Amien\'s maneuver in the last minutes leading up to the election would also be decisive because he always had a contribution in influencing the choice of congressional participants.

Anything can happen in the congress.