ABSTRACT
In June 1999 Golkar contested the first competitive election in its history. Given the artificially constructed election results during the New Order, few observers had dared to predict the outcome of this election,1 but arguably many experts were surprised to see the former regime party finishing second with 22.44 per cent of the vote. After the election, a frequently heard explanation for the ‘relatively good performance of Golkar’ (Suryadinata 2002: 103)2 was that the former regime party owed its success primarily to its superior organizational apparatus (Budiman 1999, Kingsbury 2002, Suryadinata 2002). Five years later, Golkar returned to the top of the voting tally in the 2004 election, and yet again observers pointed to the party’s massive political machinery (mesin politik) as the main reason for the party’s victory.
