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Friday, Feb. 22, was a special day for Democratic Party
chairman Anas Urbaningrum. That day he was named a suspect by the
Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in a corruption case centering on
the construction of the Hambalang sports facility in Bogor, West Java.
A week earlier, his powers as chairman of the party were taken over by the
chairman of the party’s supreme assembly President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono.
A day after KPK declared him a graft suspect, Anas relinquished his chief
post in accordance with the integrity pact he and other party executives
had signed. He has quit from the party altogether as evinced when he took
off his blue party jacket, according to his close friend Saan Mustofa, the
party’s deputy secretary general.
If the Corruption Court judges later find Anas guilty as charged, it would
not be impossible for him to completely lose his political career. He may
also face mounting public calls for fulfillment of his vow to get himself
hung on the rope at the National Monument if he is proven guilty of
corruption.
Otherwise, Anas will gain prominence as a young politician who was
sacrificed by the party’s paramount leader Yudhoyono.
Could the prosecution and jail sentence Anas is facing kill his political future?
Apparently not. When announcing his resignation on Saturday Anas said his
exit was not the end but instead the beginning of the story.
“This is just the first page. We will read the following pages,” he said.
“The party will take on a test of adherence to its clean, smart and ethical
slogan. We will learn if the party is ethical or cruel.”
Anas is basically challenging the political authority of SBY. Anas is
sending a clear message that he will
be open about all corrupt practices involving the ruling Democratic Party,
including, but not limited to, the Bank Century bailout scandal and the
Hambalang corruption case.
Since he declared his bid to contest the Democratic Party top executive
post ahead of the party’s national congress in May 2010, Anas had
demonstrated his guts to challenge SBY. At that time, SBY was seen as
endorsing the nomination of Andi Mallarangeng, as was apparent in the
involvement of his son Edhie “Ibas” Baskoro in the team campaigning for the
sports minister.
However, Anas defied the odds and surprisingly won the chairmanship. Since
then Anas appeared as a young political leader whose climb to the party’s
top post was unwanted by SBY. In his language, Anas analogized himself as
“a child whose birth was unwanted”. Countering any allegations that he was
the ringleader of the declining electability of the party, Anas said that
the slump had something to do with SBY’s increasingly falling popularity in
the eyes of the people.
There is obviously a bitter rivalry between Anas as party chairman and SBY
as the party’s supreme leader, although it had never come to the fore until
the party leaders upped the pressure to unseat Anas, which climaxed in his
resignation.
The eventful run-up to Anas’ exit only indicates that SBY deemed Anas as a
challenger, if not a threat, to his political clout in the party which he
helped found. Therefore, on many occasions, the President sought to
delegitimize Anas, who only joined the party after serving in the General
Elections Commission that administered the 2004 polls.
Anas’ resignation should give SBY loyalists in the party the last laugh. In
their eyes, Anas’ imminent prosecution marks an end to his political
career.
However, if we analyze it more deeply, the SBY loyalists are actually
cheering on the party’s self destruction. They do not realize that Anas may
lead graft buster KPK to many more Democratic Party cadres and perhaps
leaders.
The legal process against Anas will not accelerate consolidation of the
Democratic Party and restoration of its electability as many have expected.
Rather, the party’s electability rating will further plunge due to more
corruption scandals that it is facing.
Internal consolidation will be more difficult because there is no longer a
sense of togetherness among party cadres. The party is infested with
opportunists who only benefit the party as a political vehicle in order to
earn money and power.
At the same time, SBY will no longer serve as a unifying magnet of party
members and supporters as the Constitution bars him from running for a
third term of office.
In rather rough language, the party members and sympathizers are listening
to “the death bells”. Corruption cases will not stop plaguing the party
after KPK declared Anas a suspect. Anas could open the Pandora’s box of
graft practices involving the party, including the suspicious bailout worth
Rp 6.7 trillion (US$690.36 million) for Bank Century, now Bank Mutiara.
In the eyes of SBY, perhaps, revelation of more graft cases involving the
party members suits his willingness to clean up his party. But consciously
or not, the President will be digging his party’s own grave.
People will not consider the disclosure of more corruption cases
implicating the party members a manifestation of SBY’ and his party’s commitment
to the fight against graft. Instead, the corruption cases will only confirm
public suspicion that the party is a hotbed for corrupt people.
Worse, the public will question the capability of President Yudhoyono to
promote and instill an anticorruption culture among the party members
despite his “omnipotence” as the party’s chief of supreme council, board of
trustees and board of patrons. The more party members are embroiled in
graft cases, the less is public trust in the party’s anticorruption campaign.
The death knell the Democrats are listening to is increasingly hard to
endure. Without any revolutionary changes, the party will not pass the
tests Anas has foretold, not to mention win the war within. ●
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