Entering the political year in 2018 and facing 2019, the Golkar Party faces formidable challenge amidst a vortex of corruption cases faced by some Golkar party heads in the region and former chairman of Golkar Party Setya Novanto.
Although Golkar as delivered by Denny JA is a modern and professional party, in which Golkar is the first political party in Indonesia to use survey results to make decisions and have 2 special talismans, namely its strength as a political party that does not depend on the central of a certain figure (impersonal order), because it has metamorphosed into a modern party that relies on the party system as a strength.
In addition Golkar also has another talisman that is also used by Jose Mourinho as coach in Inter Milan, the strategy is capability to defense or “Catenaccio” and counterattack, which is able to beat the beautiful attacking football or “Tiki-Taka” from Barcelona in the semi-final Champions League, Golkar also has a remarkable defense ability under of attacks and pressure from other parties, even winning in the 2004 general election.
However, that situation occurred 15 years ago, the charisma effect of the character or in the scientific language is called by “Coattail Effect” is now the cornerstone of a party’s main strategy in winning elections. Like the effect of SBY on Democrats, Prabowo on Gerindra and Jokowi on the PDI-P became a marker that central figures could be the bearer of both positive and negative effects on the popularity of political parties.
As the last survey released by Poltracking that Golkar position was overtaken by Gerindra Party. Gerindra’s leader Prabowo Subianto pocketed electability by 13.6 percent, while Golkar only 10.9 percent (Kompas, 2017). In addition, a recent survey by CSIS ( Center for Strategic and International Studies ) shows the decline of Golkar votes in Millenial voters (ages 17-29) under PDI-P, Gerindra and Democrats, whereas the number of millennial voters according to the BKKBN survey has been reaching 35% of the total population nationally, thus it’s needed special treatment specifically to be done by the Golkar party in the future.
The Special Treatment namely: Airlangga Hartarto
Quoting Golkar’s senior politician Happy Bone Zulkarnain, that Golkar has experienced a decrease in votes in some surveys, so that Golkar can be reprimanded at urgent position to immediately take special action, thus not continue to slump and touch the line with a single digit number, one of its solutions is by making a change of leadership in the party, quoted by Rilis ID press, Happy analogy that “Like a large ship, Golkar has a troubled helmsman now. If the skipper is in trouble, inevitably the ship is drowned. So there should be a new leader to prevent the sinking of the ship, “.
The emergence of the name Airlangga Hartarto as a powerful candidate for the successor of Setya Novanto has been predicted by many parties and scholars’ opinion, a positive indication from the battleground to approve progress of this minister of industry as chairman of the Golkar party has been clearly visible with called Airlangga Hartarto accompanied Luhut Binsar Panjaitan facing Jokowi at the Presidential Palace , praise also came out of Luhut when said that Golkar has a cadre that performs very well namely Airlangga Hartarto when held Rapimnas Golkar Party in Balikpapan.
In addition to the success of Airlangga as a minister who viewed Jokowi has a chance to handle Golkar party very impressive, so that Golkar has Passion of Growth to improve its voice and can make Jokowi’s move easier to run as the presidential candidate again in 2019 through the Golkar party. Airlangga also has other advantages as a requirement to be a leader, namely ability of Relationship building, because in the era of interconnection & coopetition (synergy) as it is today in the millennial era, the ability to establish relationships is more fundamental because one must be able to shake tightly with other parties.
Well this is the point why the name of Airlangga can appear, almost can be said that all the factions of power in internal Golkar have no problem with this one figure, so not strange before the increase, a lot of recommendations support Golkar figures who come to Airlangga, Vice President Jusuf Kalla, Coordinating Minister for Marine Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, Vice Chairman of the Golkar Party Honorary Council Akbar Tandjung, General Chairman of MKGR Roem Kono, Chairman of Soksi Ade Komarudin, Chairman of the Expert Council and Chairman of Kosgoro Agung Laksono and several regional votes from the DPD 1 and DPD 2 of Golkar party . Airlangga is like a magnet that is thought to be able to glue and solidify all forces in the Golkar party in through the political turmoil in 2018 for the local election simultaneously and 2019 for legislation and the presidential election.
And the ultimate point is Airlangga’s ability as a leader with factors of Self-confidence. That is the leader who has a measured confidence will not give up on the situation and be creative in finding solutions. That is a leader who is able to get out from the paradigm of the victim situation and always able to have a role to change.
Airlangga like Diego Milito as the striker of the Italian football club Inter Milan in the year 2009-2010, at first was not favored as an Inter Milan striker at that time because under figure of Balotelli as the main striker, but not even brilliant at the field and surpassed by the actions of Milito, thus it was a perfect substitute for Mourinho at the time, connecting Denny JA’s phrase that Golkar is a team-based organization, but still the role of the decisive individual is unforgettable, so Milito’s figure at Inter at that time not only succeeded as a sharp spear and made Bayern Munich conceded 2 goals in the Champions League final. Plus 2 perfect passing for Sneijder and Maicon to make Inter able to reverse the superior position of Barcelona to be left behind in the 2010 Champions League semi-final match.
This figure like Milito in the current context of Golkar party is in Airlangga, in addition to having the ability to reverse the Golkar situation that had slumped and his voice continued to decline to be back and rise up, Airlangga is also a figure of striker and brilliant feeder, in addition to being able to be a target man that winning goal scorer for the Golkar party, this tall man figure can also be a perfect ball for his comrades in Golkar Party to take the winning goal for Golkar in the democratic moment in 2018-2019. Thus, whether the Airlangga figure will be able to follow in Milito’s footsteps that make his team the best team in the world at that time, we will see together in the future.
