Big parties aim to deliver more oomph
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.