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.