Former president Soeharto’s daughter Siti Hediati Hariyadi has expressed support to the holding of an extraordinary meeting to elect a new general chairperson of Golkar Party to replace Setya Novanto who is now detained as a corruption suspect.
“As I have said the meeting is very important with regard to finding new Golkar leadership through election by Golkar voters,” she said at the handing over of aid by the ministry of fisheries and maritime affairs to fishermen in Bantul district, Yogyakarta.
Titiek Soeharto as she is also called said the meeting must be held immediately and “I heard it will be in the third week of this month”. When asked about her rival industry minister Airlangga Hartarto she said anyone may run and so there is no problem about it.
“Anyone may run. Golkar has many good cadres and it has been proven. Many party leaders now are Golkar leavers, isn’t it,” she said. She said Golkar has many good cadres and so she hoped only the best one would be elected so that the party would be great again.
Asked about the criteria for the new Golkar chief she said the one certainly must be clean and meet public expectation. “A leader must have a vision on how to make Gokar great again and most importantly must shun corruption or corrupt labels,” she said.
Titiek who is now a parliament member said if the meeting later should also decide the replacement of Novanto as house speaker. “I do not know. Tomorrow there will be a house session. I do not know if the replacement of the house speaker would be part of the agenda or whether it would be decided later on,” she added.
