Campaigns light on the festivities

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.