ABSTRACT
In 1999, a total of 23,741,749 Indonesians gave their vote to Golkar in the country’s first free and fair elections since 1955. Five years later, in 2004, Golkar’s share of votes in terms of the overall percentage had dropped from 22.44 to 21.58, but despite the losses the absolute number of voters who punched the Golkar logo on the ballot paper had actually increased to 24,480,757. The fact that more than 20 million Indonesians still voted for Golkar raises questions about the reasons and motivations people have for supporting the former regime party. According to Randall and Svåsand (2002a: 13), it is important for a party’s institutionalization record that its members and supporters commit themselves to the party not only for their own self-interest, but also for the sake of the party itself. Such a non-selfish commitment is best achieved if the party has a persuasive value-based platform or ideology, which ideally should link it with a broader social movement. However, as Randall and Svåsand (2002a: 21) point out, this kind of party is rarely found outside Europe these days.1
