Suharto dynasty suffers blow to ambitions in Indonesia

Novanto’s support enabled Jokowi to tame his own Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and push through his policies, but his ouster had opened the way for anti-Jokowi figures in Golkar to take charge. 
Instead, Golkar on Wednesday named Airlangga Hartarto, a Cabinet member an ally of Jokowi, as its new party chairman.
“Starting tonight [Wednesday evening], Airlangga will be the Golkar chairman. With the plenary meeting’s decision [to appoint him], the chairman position is not empty,” the party’s executive 
chairman Nurdin Halid told reporters.
The country’s second largest party, a notoriously fractious and graft-ridden outfit set up by former dictator Suharto, is scheduled to hold an extraordinary meeting to officially inaugurate Hartarto as chairman.
Siti Hedijati “Titiek” Suharto, the daughter of Suharto, had been a rival candidate to Hartarto. Analysts say Titiek Suharto is eyeing a challenge to Jokowi in the 2019 presidential elections, but that prospect has for now receded – stemming the rise of dynastic politics in Indonesia. Titiek’s brother Tommy Suharto, a businessmen and convicted murderer, had also reportedly been mulling a run for president in 2019. 
However, the news isn’t all positive for Jokowi. There are doubts about how much loyalty new chairman Hartarto commands among the Golkar rank-and-file and whether he has what it takes to unite a party that has split into at least four different factions. As such, Jokowi faces a rougher ride to re-election than had Novanto remained at the Golkar helm. 
Novanto could face a 20-year prison term as the alleged central figure in a conspiracy to embezzle Rp2.3 trillion (US$173 million) from a grossly inflated Rp5.9 trillion electronic identity card project eight years ago.