Golkar (Golongan Karya, or Joint Secretariat of Functional Groups) was a government party in Indonesia during President Suharto's New Order. It was created as an umbrella of anti-Communist civilian associations and trade unions in order to balance the influence of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI, or Partai Komunis Indonesia), which had grown during the period of Guided Democracy (1959–1965) established by President Sukarno. Golkar was sponsored by the Indonesian army. With Suharto's ascent to power in 1967, Golkar became the electoral organization of the New Order government. At first Golkar lacked the individual membership and special cadre of activists needed to form a strong political party. By 1971, however, it won the national election and subsequently had little competition from the other two political parties—the United Development Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party—that had emerged from Suharto's rationalization of the political system in 1973. By 1983, Golkar was considered a strong political party, widely supported because of Indonesia's economic successes under it but also because opponents were intimidated and election results were manipulated. At the general election of June 1999, Golkar was relegated to second place after Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party, signifying the final demise of the New Order.
Further Reading
Cribb, Robert, and Colin Brown. (1995) Modern Indonesia:A History since 1945. New York: Longman.
Pompe, Sebastiaan. (1999) De Indonesische Algemene Verkiezingen (The Indonesian General Election). Leiden, Netherlands: KITLV Uitgeverij.
Vatikiotis, Michael R. J. (1993) Indonesian Politics underSuharto. New York: Routledge.
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