After the debacle of the recent elections in Indonesia, the country was in for another unsuspected surprise: the nomination of ex-General Wiranto, former Head of the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI), to the position of being the main candidate of the Golkar party that has shocked the country by staging a miraculous comeback to the stage on Indonesian politics.

It now seems like a sad and twisted case of history repeating itself. The Golkar party that was formed during the time of former President Soeharto was set up as part of the depoliticisation process, and was part of the New Order regime in the 1970s to the 1990s. Golkar was an attempt by the Soeharto government to wipe out all legitimate dissent and opposition in the country, and its membership was made up of civil servants and bureaucrats that were already part of the state's governing apparatus.