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.