TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Observers say that the corruption cases implicating a number of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) cadres will not affect the party's electability. One reason, said a researcher from the Center for Strategic and International Studies J. Kristiadi, is because PDIP has Joko Widodo.
"PDIP's got Jokowi, who is loved by the public," said Kristiadi, last Saturday.
Kristiadi said that corruption cases can have a reversed effect; catapulting the popularity of the party--provided PDIP leaders are acting firmly. "The party should not indicate any notion of defending [cadres] who are implicated in corruption, it should instead leave it all to the law," he said.
A number of PDIP cadres had to deal with the law. On Thursday last week, House of Representative's Finance Committee member Izedrik Emir Moeis underwent an initial hearing at the Jakarta Corruption Court. He was charged with receiving a bribe of US$432.900 to help a contractor win a steam power plant project bid.
In the same week, the East Java Police named former Surabaya Deputy Mayor, Bambang Dwi Hartono, as a suspect in a gratification case. Before that, the Central Java High Court named another PDIP politician Rina Iriani Ratnaningsih--the regent of Karanganyar--as a suspect in a case of housing subsidies abuse worth Rp18.4 billion.
Executive Director of Pol-Tracking Institute, Hanta Yuda, said that PDIP's electability can be maintained if the party names Jokowi as its presidential candidate. If PDIP pushes Megawati Sukarnoputri, victory will be difficult to achieve.
Meanwhile, Charta Politica's research director Yunarto Wijaya said that PDIP is slightly at an advantage because the grafts implicating its cadres are considered 'not systemic'.
"If PDIP is implicated with cases with the same magnitude as Democrats and PKS, the party's fate would not be much different," he said.
PDIP's deputy secretary general Ahmad Basarah remains optimistic that his party could reach 27 percent vote in the 2014 election. In the 2009 elections, PDIP bagged 14 percent of the total vote.
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