House Speaker Marzuki Says Look Outside Parties for 2014 Leaders

Ezra Sihite

Leaders of political factions are not necessarily the best-placed candidates for the presidency from their parties, House of Representatives Speaker Marzuki Alie said on Monday.

According to Marzuki, who is also the deputy chairman of the Democratic Party’s board of advisors, other non-political figures can become presidential candidates. He said his only personal requirements were experience and integrity.

“Just because a person is the chairman of a political party does not mean that person should become president,” said Marzuki at the legislature building on Monday.

He singled out several public figures — none members of the Democratic Party — whom he said he believed would make successful leaders, such as Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo, Garuda Indonesia president director Emirsyah Satar and Bank Mandiri president director Zulkifli.

Marzuki said that in a recent discussion with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, they both agreed upon the need to encourage people with leadership potential both from within the party and from outside it.

The Democratic Party has yet to name its presidential candidate for 2014.

“If we deny the opportunity to people with ability, we will not be able to get a good leader for this country,” he said. “SBY once said to me ‘Pak Marzuki, you do believe that our country is big, right? God will choose [the leader] for us.’ ”

Meanwhile, Democratic Party chairman Anas Urbaningrum seemed satisfied with the survey conducted by Kompas on political parties’ images.

“We want to build an image based on our cadres’ concrete performance,” Anas said in an e-mail on Monday.

A Kompas survey published on Monday found the Democratic Party to be the party with the strongest figure, that best implemented its programs and had the best responses to real problems. However, in the category of party unity, the Democratic Party came in fourth place, behind the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the Golkar Party and the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra).

Anas said the party would use the survey as a basis for self-evaluation.

“If the perception is good, we will maintain it and strengthen it. But if a certain part is considered not good, we will evaluate, correct and improve it,” he said.