Broken promises leave public fed up with politics: Analysts

Broken promises leave public fed up with politics: Analysts

M. Taufiqurrahman and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta

The public's cool response to the hype surrounding the
presidential election campaign shows that the public are fed up
with the constant politicking that has been taking place since
the fall of the New Order regime in 1998, analysts say.

Analyst Daniel Sparingga of the state Airlangga University in
Surabaya, East Java, said on Saturday that people had also
started to disengage from politics to avoid further
disappointment as a result of politicians to fulfill their
promises once elected.

"Such apathy prevailed in the months leading up to the April 5
legislative election, with the people only turning up for rallies
for the money and entertainment that went along with them. Now
the pessimism has grown stronger, they don't want to be let down
a the second time," Daniel told The Jakarta Post during a
telephone interview.

The jubilation that surrounded the 1999 legislative election
failed to produce any meaningful improvements, he argued.

"Deep in their hearts, people are seriously pondering which
presidential candidate will inflict the least damage on them," he
said.

He said that the voters had learned political maturity not
through rational analysis but instead from continuous
disillusionment.

Daniel also said that the current public passivity was also
attributable to the fact that some candidates' election teams
were at times not being supported by the political machinery of
the political parties that nominated them.

Five pairings of candidates, Gen. (ret) Wiranto and Solahuddin
Wahid of the Golkar Party, incumbent President Megawati
Soekarnoputri and Hasyim Muzadi of the Indonesian Democratic
Party of Struggle, Amien Rais and Siswono Yudohusodo of the
National Mandate Party, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Jusuf Kalla
of the Democratic Party, and Hamzah Haz and Agum Gumelar of the
United Development Party have traveled extensively across the
country, greeting prospective supporters in an attempt to win
their support.

However, entering the third week of the month-long
presidential election campaign, the public seem to have little
interest in what the candidates are saying and doing.

Political observer from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences
(LIPI), Ikrar Nusa Bakti, concurred with Daniel, saying that
people were tired after the hullabaloo that accompanied the
legislative election.

"People have learned that there is no need to take the
campaign too seriously," he told the Post.

Contacted separately, analyst Andi Alfian Malarangeng said
that the public had become more mature and now viewed politics as
merely one aspect of their lives.

"That's how things should be. The people finally see politics
as only one aspect of their lives. They no longer consider it
something sacred. Instead, they can continue going about doing
their business despite the campaign," Andi said.

Ikrar said that the failure to attract the interest of the
public had prompted the candidates to change their methods of
campaigning.

"It is more efficient to campaign through the media. It
reaches a wider audience and is cheaper. Imagine how much money
the candidates have to spend on organizing rallies across the
country," Ikrar said.