Golkar afraid of Nasdem: Surya Paloh

National Democrat (Nasdem) founder Surya Paloh deplores Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie’s instruction that all Golkar members involved in the newly-declared Nasdem political party should resign from Golkar.
According to Paloh, who is still a Golkar member, Aburizal is worried about the potential of Nasdem in the next legislative elections.
“Nasdem has great potential in the 2014 elections. It is normal that he [Aburizal] issued the warning, because we can harm Golkar’s position,” Paloh said Saturday as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.
“Golkar has more experience than Nasdem; it should have more confidence,” he added.
Aburizal Bakrie gave Aug. 11 as the deadline for all Golkar members involved in Nasdem to decide whether they wanted to stay with Golkar, or join the new party.
The instruction was also addressed to Paloh, who said he is still undecided about the issue.


“I want to focus on Nasdem's social activities. I haven’t yet thought about which party I would join,” he said.
Nasdem, as a civil society organization, was founded last year but some of its members decided to enter the political arena by forming a political party with the same name. The Nasdem party was declared and registered at the Law and Human Rights Ministry on Wednesday.
Paloh, who chairs Nasdem, said the establishment of the political party, chaired by Rio Patrice Capella, had not been his idea but had been forwarded by other members within the organization.

source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/07/30/golkar-afraid-nasdem-surya-paloh.html