Campaign rules stifle debate
By Sirikit Syah
JAKARTA (JP): Campaign rules say that politicians cannot judge, belittle or disparage policies of the government, civil servants or Armed Forces staff.
This makes it hard for campaigners to win votes by talking on clean government, anticorruption or political reform, which are key election issues.
An United Development Party (PPP) speaker was stumped when a member of the party's radio campaign audience asked yesterday about collusion. How could he condemn collusion without mentioning the bureaucracy?
This also happened to a PPP speaker in Pasuruan, East Java, Tuesday. Saad Syamlan, a legislator and respected Moslem leader, was publicly reprimanded by a police officer while addressing about 50,000 supporters.
The officer accused him of attacking the state ideology Pancasila, the 1945 Constitution, undermining the government and setting groups against each other. Saad had spoken on political injustice and growing economic disparity, which had been raised countless times by other legislators and observers.
Another rule says that parties must submit scripts for broadcasts to a General Elections Committee team for scrutiny. They must notify the information minister, and the committee chairman will appoint a moderator to run the broadcasts.
The committee has said the strict format of broadcasted political discussions will prevent unruly debate.
Committee spokesman H. Dailami told The Jakarta Post Tuesday that everything had been well prepared.
There will be no heated arguments because parties won't be allowed to debate on air. "A (talk show) program will only present personnel from one party," he said.
About 30 people will participate in the 30-minute, prerecorded discussions comprising a moderator, a campaign speaker, two or three assistants and the audience.
"The audience could be anybody invited by the party which has its turn to campaign," Dailami said.
Censorship
Audiences are allowed to ask questions or respond to speakers.
Asked if audiences would rehearse their responses and questions, Dailami said: "We do everything like for other TV productions. If a rehearsal is needed, we will do it.
"But it is more for technical operations, there is no censorship of campaign material," he said. The committee was responsible for the material but the show would be produced by the staff of state television station TVRI.
Dailami believes the rules will ensure that everything will run smoothly.
"Each party should behave itself," he insisted. "We do our job according to the regulations," he said.
Televised campaigning is new to Indonesia. All three parties have broadcasted their chairmen's speeches since campaigning began last Sunday.
On Wednesday, the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) started its campaign broadcasts by featuring deputy chief Fatimah Achmad before a mostly female audience. Her topic was empowering women.
Last night, PPP speakers Ali Hardi Kiai Demak and Zarkasih Nur, moderated by deputy chief Jusuf Syakir, spoke on "revitalizing the national political system".
On May 4, the PPP will discuss democratization and economic justice, and then human resource development on May 7. On May 13, secretary-general Tosari Widjaya and an audience will discuss unemployment and workers' welfare. On May 16, deputy chief Aisyah Amini will speak on empowering women.
On May 19, PPP leaders Zain Badjeber and Yudo Paripurno will wrap up the party's televised campaign with a discussion on law and justice.
This evening, Golkar deputy chief Ismael Hasan will speak in the televised debate about how the ruling grouping is contributing toward the peaceful coexistence among religions.
On May 3, PDI campaign speaker Markus Wauran will speak about poverty alleviation effort in a televised debate moderated by Patmono S.K. On May 6, speaker Budi Hardjono will speak about manpower affairs, moderated by Elman Saragih, a journalist at the Media Indonesia daily.
The TVRI television station has refused to release any information on scheduling or mechanisms of televised debates.