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Pekanbaru, Riau. Aburizal Bakrie on Thursday began his six-year term at the helm of Golkar, the country’s second largest political party, and vowed to maintain its position at the forefront of national policy.

Aburizal will begin serving a second term as coordinating minister of people’s welfare in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s cabinet this month, confirming speculation that he intended to keep the party from becoming a much-needed opposition force.

Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party won the largest number of seats in the 560-member House of Representatives. The victory was bolstered by the forging of an alliance with 23 political parties to back his re-election.

In his inaugural address, Aburizal said he would “continue to stress that our party is a frontline guardian of the government’s policies.”

“Opposition and coalition, in the context of an ever progressing Indonesia, are no longer” mutually exclusive options, he said.

After being elected the new Golkar Party chairman on Thursday, Aburizal said he planned to pay a visit to Yudhoyono soon to present the new party leadership.

He said Golkar, which has suffered two electoral defeats this year, must be clever in its political maneuvers to serve the interests of the party.

However, he added that Golkar’s interests “also coincide with those of the nation.”

Under his leadership, Aburizal said the party would place a high priority on consolidating the organization, forming cadres, boosting creativity and ideas and winning elections at all levels.

“All central and regional executive cadres have to be able to unite in heart and spirit, strengthen discipline, tow the party line and agree on” all internal party matters, he said. Aburizal added that this game plan would allow the party to mend internal rifts that formed ahead of the presidential election in July.

Sharp ideas a clear party strategy would allow Golkar “to win public opinion, and through that our party will be able to influence government policies in various sectors.”

Aburizal, who will lead the party for the 2009-15 term, which is one year longer than the customary five-year tenure, vowed to work “day and night, seven days a week, to make the party greater.”

The expanded tenure was meant to ensure the party would not be fractured by internal strife in the run up to the 2014 elections. The term after his would be trimmed back to four years to prevent the change in party leadership from coinciding with a presidential election.

To help him lead the party, Aburizal chose a cast of supporters that included former House Speaker Agung Laksono and senior lawmaker Theo Sambuaga as deputy chairmen, former Golkar chairman Akbar Tanjung as head of the party’s advisory board and lawmaker Idrus Marham as secretary general. None of his rival contenders for the party chairmanship — media mogul Surya Paloh, lawmaker Yuddy Chrisnandi or Hutomo “Tommy” Mandala Putra, President Suharto’s youngest son — or their backers made it into leadership posts.

Among those appointed to the leadership, two prompted rowdy reactions when they were announced. Titiek Suharto, a daughter of the party’s former longtime patron Suharto, was named deputy secretary general, while Rizal Mallarangeng, an older brother of Yudhoyono’s spokesman, Andi Mallarangeng, became head of the executive board’s ideas and policy department.

Aburizal garnered 296 of the 528 votes in the party congress, while 240 went to his strongest rival, Paloh. Yuddy and Tommy failed to tally a single vote.