Amien Rais' Son Quits PAN, Loyalists Prepare To Form A New Party

Hanafi Rais (Photo: Pan.or.id)

JAKARTA - A politician from the National Mandate Party (PAN) who is also a loyalist of Amien Rais, Muhammad Asri Anas, said that his party is now continuing to consolidate to form a new party.

Even though he claims to have a new party, he does not want to reveal his name to the public. It's just that, he claims, the new party will be declared after Eid.

"There is a (new party). Pray for a declaration after Eid," said Asri Anas when contacted by VOI via text message, Tuesday, May 5.

Meanwhile, regarding the resignation of Hanafi Rais from the DPR and PAN cadres, he does not yet know the next step. It's just that his party will embrace Hanafi to join the new party.

"I don't know what steps he (Hanafi) took, but of course my friends and I want to invite him together in the new party that will be established," he said.

Creating a New Party is not easy, it needs logistics

Executive Director of Median, Rico Marbun, assessed that there are positive and negative sides if loyalists Amien Rais and Hanafi Rais form a new party.

On the negative side, said Rico, it is not certain that all Amien Rais loyalists will move to the new party. It is possible that they will still leave PAN but jump to other existing parties. In addition, creating a new party is not an easy task considering it requires large costs and logistics.

"Creating a new party is not easy. There are time and logistical problems," he said when contacted.

On the positive side, if all Amien Rais loyalists join the new party, the consolidation will be easy to carry out.

"If you create a new party, all the ideals of this carriage will easily work according to the idea and will be mobilized," said Rico.

As previously reported, Amien Rais' son, Hanafi Rais resigned from his position as Chairman of the National Mandate Party (PAN) faction of the DPR RI and party officials. This resignation was conveyed through a letter signed on a stamp of Rp. 6,000.

"Together with this letter, I declare that I am resigning from the management of the 2020-2025 PAN DPP, from the Chairman of the PAN Faction of the DPR RI, and from members of the DPR RI from the 2019-2024 PAN Faction," said Hanafi in the letter signed on Tuesday, April 5.

In the letter, Hanafi seemed disappointed with the holding of the V PAN Congress in Kendari some time ago. Because, he considered that his party had missed the opportunity to improve the party's internal through the event because of the chaos that had occurred.

"I think PAN missed the above momentum to improve itself to be wiser in organization and attitude," he said.

It is known, last February PAN held a congress and as a result, Zulkifli Hasan was again elected as Chairman of PAN for the 2020-2025 period.

However, the congress was tarnished because the two sides of the candidate for chairman Mulfachri Harahap and Zulkifli Hasan were involved in a commotion, throwing benches at each other during the suspension of the plenary meeting.

After the congress was over and the PAN management was announced, there was no name Amien Rais, who was the party's founder as well as the first general chairman. Sutrisno Bachir also replaced Amien's position as chairman of the honorary council.