Campaigns light on the festivities
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
In comparison with the legislative campaigns across the city in March, the ongoing presidential campaigns are obviously muted.
Despite sprawling banners, posters and other paraphernalia depicting the candidates and their slogans on the streets, the people's enthusiasm appears to be low.
Colorful parades are noticeably absent, while many events organized by the various campaign teams are attended by a sparse audience.
Most campaign teams, especially in the regions, blamed funding shortages for the relative quiet, while others claimed that they were intentionally restraining from "going all out", as festive campaigns might not be effective in garnering more votes. Instead, they believed that direct interaction with constituents would be much more effective and less costly than lavish outdoor campaigns.
Ibrahim Sakti Batubara, the Amien-Siswono campaign coordinator for North Sumatra, bemoaned the limited funds for campaigns in the province, which he estimated at Rp 1 billion (US$105,263).
Amien-Siswono are scheduled to campaign in the province mid- month, but Ibrahim said the team had only received a partial disbursement and they would have to scramble to procure the remainder from the central team before the day of the event.
Syaifuddin D.J., the Susilo-Kalla campaign manager for Samarinda, said the team had a mere Rp 2 billion budget to finance all campaigns in the province, so it had to be highly efficient and creative in their arrangement.
The small budget also meant the team could not hold many outdoor campaigns.
"It takes a lot of money to mobilize people to campaign. As we have a limited fund, we have replaced outdoor campaigns with direct campaigns or dialogs with a select audience," he said.
Jamaludin Amien, an Amien-Siswono campaign team member for South Sulawesi, commented that while public participation might be smaller in these types of campaigns, they could be more effective in influencing people's decisions through dialog and person-to-person meetings.
Also in South Sulawesi, Muhammad Roem of the Wiranto- Solahuddin camp also agreed that the available campaign funds amounted to much less than that of the March campaigns.
He believed that more people were eager to finance the legislative campaigns because they knew they would receive a direct benefit from participating, particularly if "their" candidate won a seat.
On the other hand, people were not clear about any personal benefits to be gained from campaigning for a presidential candidate, he explained.
"This is why campaign teams or individuals affiliated with particular parties here wait for funds to arrive from the central campaign team or presidential candidates," he said.
Ranny Emilia, a political observer at Andalas University in Padang, West Sumatra, said at least two factors explained the relative dullness of the presidential campaigns: First, most party members were exhausted and out of funds from the March campaigns; and second, people were generally interested in only those campaigns attended by their presidential favorites.
Another observer, Andreas Pandiangan of Soegijapranata Catholic University in Semarang, said people were confused by the political alliances formed by the candidates, which dampened their interest in participating.
"During the legislative campaigns, they were certain to vote for their preferred parties. But now, they are confused. They like a presidential candidate, but don't like their running mate and vice versa, which has made them apathetic," he said.