Moerdani was assertive enough to criticize the President for the corruption and nepotism in the regime. By this time, Moerdani had also made an enemy out of Prabowo Subianto, Suharto's son in law. 1988 was an important year as it was the year of an MPR General Session, the venue in which the President and the Vice President is elected. As the General Session approached, Suharto began making signs that he wanted Sudharmono as his Vice President. According to Kivlan Zen, a close associate of Prabowo, this ran contrary to Moerdani, who wanted to become vice president himself. As such, this seemed to have been the reason for Moerdani's discharge from the position of ABRI Commander in February 1988, although according to Robert Elson, this was done more because Suharto did not want Moerdani to be in control of the Armed Forces when Sudharmono was nominated. Robert Elson theorized of the possibility of Sudharmono's vice presidency being the final step before the Indonesian Presidency itself. Moerdani did not seem to give up. The same month the top brass of Golkar met to discuss the MPR General Session. On the matter of the vice presidential candidate the Bureaucrats and Functional factions unanimously agreed to nominate Sudharmono. The ABRI faction's nomination was delayed, with Moerdani continuing to procrastinate by claiming that he had not discussed the vice presidential nomination with Suharto yet. When pressured, Moerdani expressed his concern about Sudharmono's nomination although he did not give a specific reason. At one stage, he began giving subliminal signals that Try should be nominated as vice president. Try did not pick up on this and along with the other officers convinced a reluctant Moerdani that the ABRI Faction's vice presidential candidate would be Sudharmono. Many believed that Moerdani was responsible for the controversy that continued to dog Sudharmono's nomination. It was believed that Brigadier General Ibrahim Saleh's attack on Sudharmono and the nomination of the United Development Party (PPP) Chairman Jailani Naro as vice president was Moerdani's work. Nevertheless, Suharto's will came through in the end and Sudharmono was elected vice president. Minister of Defense and Security Despite his attempts to block Sudharmono, Suharto did not demote Moerdani and appointed him as the Minister of Defense and Security. However, Moerdani would lose most of his powers in September 1988 with the disbandment of Kopkamtib. During his term as Minister, Moerdani was accused of planning