1. WIRANTO: 30 pt, 4 cols, 1 x 36
1. WIRANTO: 30 pt, 4 cols, 1 x 36
Wiranto's team fights for solidity
Members of the campaign team for Gen. (ret) Wiranto and cleric
Solahuddin Wahid are still struggling to match their thoughts and
behavior as the one-month campaigning period kicks off on
Tuesday.
This is because the members come from three different groups:
Wiranto's "Imperium" team, named after the hotel where they are
based, the National Awakening Party (PKB) and Golkar itself.
"We need to understand each other and to adapt to the habits
of the team members," campaign team deputy secretary Rully
Chairul Azwar told The Jakarta Post last night.
He attributed the relatively late process to the pairing of
Wiranto and Solahuddin being made official as recently as May 11
and support from PKB coming only last week.
Rully added that solidity within Golkar -- from the central
board to the regional branches -- had contributed to preparations
for the campaign.
Training for campaigners concluded here on Monday after
earlier sessions in Jakarta and Solo, Central Java.
Theo L. Sambuaga, deputy chairman of Wiranto's campaign team,
said that the Golkar and PKB teams were ready to retain their
respective supporters and also win over swing voters.
He said there were 1,000 campaigners at a national level,
about 300 in the provinces and around 200 at the regental level.
Theo said the campaign team's target was to win at least 36
percent of the vote in the first round if Wiranto and his running
mate could not win a single majority, adding, "this will be a
strong basis for the duo to win the second round".
Rully added that the campaign team was still raising funds
from businesspeople and supporters, as many team members in the
regions had refused to dig into their own pockets.
Profile of some Golkar campaign team members
=============================================================
o Slamet Effendy Yusuf (chairman)
- A deputy chairman of Golkar, he formerly led Ansor, a youth
wing of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) Muslim mass organization for two
terms, from 1985 through 1995. This facilitated his entry into
the inner circle of PKB, whose members are mainly from the NU.
o Lt. Gen. (ret) Fachrul Razi (deputy chairman)
- Born in Aceh in 1947, he last served in the military as chief
of general affairs in 1998.
o Mahfud MD (deputy chairman)
- A deputy chairman of PKB, Mahfud was defense minister in the
Cabinet of president Abdurrahman Wahid. Earlier he lectured in
law at the Indonesian Islamic University in Yogyakarta.
o Fahmi Idris (coordinator for Sumatra)
- A deputy chairman of Golkar, he was a manpower minister in the
above Cabinet. The director of PT Kodel is also active in the
Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KADIN).
o Theo L. Sambuaga (media coordinator)
- Also a deputy chairman of Golkar, he was minister for people's
housing and settlement, also under Abdurrahman. He was secretary
general of the Indonesian Youth National Committee (KNPI) and
chairman of the Indonesian Reform Youth Front (AMPI).
===============================================================
2. PLATFORM: 48 pt, 3 cols, 3 x 18
Job creation tops
the list of Mega's
economic platform
President Megawati Soekarnoputri and her running mate, Hasyim
Muzadi, promise to create millions of new jobs in the next five
years if she gets reelected for a second term in the upcoming
election.
But critics have said that this is an area where she has
generally failed so far.
In a document describing the economic platform of the pair,
the economy is envisaged to grow by an average of 6.8 percent per
year, peaking at 7.9 percent in 2009, in order to create some
12.9 million jobs during the five-year period. This, in turn, is
expected to significantly resolve pressing unemployment problems.
Although the current Megawati administration has been
applauded by many for successfully stabilizing the country's
macroeconomic indicators such as inflation and interest rates, it
has failed to transform this into higher economic growth, mainly
due to a lack of fresh investment amid lingering legal
uncertainty, corruption and security problems.
The economy has been growing at a mediocre rate of around 4
percent during the past couple of years, mainly driven by
domestic consumption. Economic growth needs to accelerate to 6
percent to 7 percent per year in order to create sufficient jobs
for the millions of unemployed. Higher investment is crucial to
the acceleration of economic growth.
High unemployment has been the most pressing problem since the
country tumbled into an economic crisis in the late 1990s. The
country's open unemployment figure is around 10.5 million, while
people living below the poverty line total around 40 million (of
the country's 220 million population).
But Megawati is confident that investment will return.
"Most of the investment would be financed from domestic
sources," stated the economic platform document, adding that to
achieve the above growth target, a huge investment of around 27.1
percent of gross domestic product (GDP) would be needed.
According to the document, the unemployment rate is projected
to fall to 6.3 percent in 2009 from last year's 9.5 percent.
As part of a job creation program, the Megawati-Hasyim duo
will also empower small and medium-scale enterprises by providing
easier access to bank loans, with priority in the eastern part of
Indonesia.
The pair also sees the agriculture sector as playing a
dominant role in absorbing unemployment and plans an average 2.8
percent growth in this sector, compared with the 2.1 percent
realized from 2001 to 2003.
The Megawati government plans incentives for farmers.
Apart from job creation, other agenda items that top the list
in Megawati's economic platform are maintaining fiscal
sustainability and improving the international competitiveness of
the local economy.
The government's debt level will be reduced to 32.8 percent of
GDP in 2009 from this year's estimate of 64.4 percent.
Reducing the debt will involve an attempt to trim the budget
deficit by strengthening fiscal sustainability through higher tax
revenue, new foreign debt management and efficiency in government
expenses.
Despite the controversy on Indonesian workers abroad, the pair
supports the sending of more workers as a solution to help
improve conditions for the domestic workforce.
3. MEGA: 36 pt, 5 cols, 1 x 40
Mega-Hasyim promise corruption-free cabinet
In an apparent effort to continue the anticorruption crusade
that he launched as leader of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Hasyim
Muzadi, the running mate of President Megawati Soekarnoputri, has
insisted that fighting corruption will be one of the main
priorities of a Mega-Hasyim government.
On Monday, Haysim promised that their Cabinet would "consist
of people imbued with loyalty, competence and integrity."
"I am happy to say that Ibu Megawati agrees about this," said
Hasyim, who declared he was nonactive as NU chairman when the
General Elections Commission (KPU) declared him as a vice
presidential candidate on May 22.
Addressing one of her rare press conferences, Megawati also
said that she had agreed with Hasyim not to appoint any person
tarnished by suspicions of graft to her Cabinet.
"It is part of the deal that we discussed six months ago
before we agreed to pair up as running mates," Megawati said.
Hasyim said that combating corruption should start from the
top within the Cabinet.
In October Hasyim and Syafii Ma'arif, the chairman of
Muhammadiyah, the second largest Muslim organization, pledged to
work together in a "cultural" movement to combat corruption.
With their organizations claiming a combined membership of 70
million, they said they shared the responsibility for spreading
the anticorruption message in their communities and among
religious leaders. Indonesia is among the world's most corrupt
countries.
Megawati meanwhile defended her much criticized stance on
corruption, saying that much had been done to try to bring
suspects to court. Nevertheless, the current attorney general, MA
Rachman, who has been questioned by the police for concealing
assets, has been allowed to remain in the Cabinet.
Mega and Hasyim also briefly described their program in the
economics field, which focuses on the creation of jobs, increases
in civil service salaries, improvements in education, and
reducing the number of those living under the poverty line by 45
percent.
Both leaders also promised to continue with the fight against
terrorism "within proper legal parameters."
In defense of her track record, Megawati said the situation
today was much better than it was when she was appointed
President in 2001.
"Those who say that the economy is stagnant are simply denying
the facts. There are many things that this current government has
done," she remarked.
The pair also pledged that they would not resort to smears and
insults against their rivals during the month-long presidential
campaign.
"Indonesia should prove to the world that we can practice
democracy in a peaceful manner," the President remarked.
4. GOLKAR: 30 pt, 2 cols, 2 x 18
Golkar to boost
image of Wiranto
The Golkar Party has handed out reading material to its
campaigners to serve as ammunition to counter political opponents
who hope to tarnish the image of its presidential candidate, Gen.
(ret) Wiranto.
The former armed forces commander has been linked to a spate
of human rights abuses, including the May riots in 1998, the
bloody incidents of Trisakti and Semanggi in 1998 and 1999, and
the carnage in East Timor in 1999.
The material would also be used by Golkar campaigners to
promote Wiranto and his running mate Solahuddin Wahid, a senior
leader of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), during a month-long campaign
starting Tuesday.
The materials were handed out to 350 campaigners during a
training session at the Jakarta Hilton Convention Center earlier
on Monday.
Members of Golkar and the National Awakening Party (PKB),
which is affiliated with the NU, will campaign in the provinces
of Jakarta, West Java and Banten.
Similar training sessions have been held for campaigners due
to be deployed to cities in Central Java, East Java and to other
islands.
Golkar has also prepared arguments to counter opinion that the
candidacy of Wiranto means the revival of militarism and that
Wiranto is working to an agenda of the Cendana family -- that of
former president Soeharto.
During the training, the campaigners were told that Wiranto
was the victim of an international conspiracy.
The campaigners were also told to underline the failure of the
current government to protect migrant workers and to save state
assets, as campaign issues.
Wiranto said after a meeting with editors of print and
electronic media that, although his meeting with East Timor
President Xanana Gusmao could not stop the prosecution process,
currently in the hands of the country's judiciary on his alleged
involvement in gross human rights violations, it could at least
show that both sides had started to reconcile.
"The meeting shows that top leaders who were directly involved
in the East Timor breakaway have decided to leave the past behind
them and start to build new relations without vengeance or
retaliation," he said after the talks with editors.
Meanwhile deputy chairperson of the National Awakening Party
(PKB) Khofifah Indar Parawansa officially tendered her
resignation from the campaigning team of Wiranto because she
preferred to remain as the chairperson of Muslimat, a women's
organization affiliated to the NU.
Muslimat made a decision recently to remain neutral in the
election and be nonactive if its members were in any team set up
to campaign for the success of NU members in the presidential
election.
In Cirebon, West Java, at least 65 NU leaders from 60 Muslim
boarding schools declared their support for the Wiranto-
Solahuddin candidacy.
Spokesman Abdul Muhaimin Asad said the support was taken to
consolidate an earlier decision of the PKB that the party
supported the Wiranto-Solahuddin pairing.
Asad added that the Muslim clerics supported Wiranto and
Solahuddin because the General Elections Commission (KPU) had
disqualified PKB candidate Abdurrahman Wahid from running for the
presidency for health reasons.