Big parties aim to deliver more oomph

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Major political parties are fine-tuning their campaign strategies in order to bounce back from disastrous early indoor campaigning, party sources say.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri's Indonesia Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) is working to improve its television spots.

"We are now working with our PR partner to promote a better campaign in the second half of the election campaign," PDI-P chief strategist Pataniari Siahaan told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

Unlike the 1999 elections, this year's campaign, which began on March 11 and will end on April 1, is taking place mostly indoors. Outdoor rallies begin only on March 26. One reason for the change was the number of clashes between party supporters during outdoor rallies ahead of the 1999 election.

One of the PDI-P's new TV spots shows a bull charging toward the Presidential Palace. The bull is the party's symbol.

Pataniari said there would be some changes in the party's ads in the electronic and print media, although the changes would not be substantial.

Agnita Singadikane, another strategist of PDI Perjuangan, said the format of the party ads would be changed to make them more effective.

"The language of our political TV ads will be made simpler and more communicative because the majority of the 147 million voters are at the grassroots level," she said.

Most the indoor campaign stops across the country have been poorly attended by party supporters unused to such dialog-driven campaigning.

The National Awakening Party (PKB) conceded it was unsatisfied with its campaign so far.

"Our indoor campaigning on university campuses and halls across the regions failed to reach our target," Iman Anshari Saleh, secretary of the party's election team, said.

The PKB plans to step up its door-to-door campaigning and preaching activities with local chapters of the Nadhlatul Ulama (NU) in order to hold onto its traditional core of voters. The NU, the country's largest Muslim organization, has always been the party's main base of support.

"The PKB will also put more ads in the local media, especially newspapers, tabloids and on radios stations," Iman said.

The Golkar Party, which counts among its strongholds parts of Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi, plans to emphasize the importance of ethics in the second half of the campaign.

Golkar chief strategist Bomer Pasaribu said party campaigners had been told to emphasize the transformation of the party from the days of the New Order, when it was the political arm of authoritarian president Soeharto.

"During the campaign, our campaigners will not speak badly about other parties and their candidates, and we will concede that Golkar made some mistakes in the past but will fight against corruption if it wins the elections. This is a fundamental change in Golkar's campaign strategy to attract voters," Bomer said.

The Crescent Star Party (PBB) said it would stay the course with its campaign strategy.

"We will continue our strategy of consolidation among party members," Sahar L. Hassan, the party's campaign manager, said.

He said the party had decided to focus on strengthening the loyalty of members rather than trying to attract new voters.

"We currently have six million members, meaning that they have our party membership cards. We hope they will ask their family members and friends to vote for our party," Sahar said.

Pataniari of the PDI-P and Golkar's Bomer both denied charges by the Indonesian Corruption Watchdog that their parties were involved in money politics.

According to the watchdog, the PDI-P has allocated Rp 100 billion (US$11.6 million) to finance its campaign. Of that amount, Rp 1.89 billion has been spent on political ads. Golkar is said to have spent Rp 640 million on political ads. Of the 24 parties contending the legislative election, 11 have no funds for ads.