Confusion

Confusion

If I may be frank, the start of the 2004 election campaign has
caused confusion among many people, educated or otherwise, mostly
due to the large number of parties contesting the elections (24
to be exact).

I am afraid, that only a few foreign ambassadors stationed in
this country know by heart the names of all 24 parties and their
leaders. Many observers may also fail to pick up on the programs
all these parties are offering to voters.

My own impression is that there are too many of the same
campaign promises to improve social welfare, reduce unemployment
and bring general prosperity through economical recovery.

It is no wonder, therefore, that a numbers of listeners of a
well-known radio station suggested that those political parties
with identical slogans and programs come together and unite in
the name of efficiency.

Yet nobody is thinking of stopping the war of words and the
march of political ambitions. This chance of a lifetime must be
seized at any cost by the newly hatched politicians. After all,
only in Indonesia can anybody be president or a legislator, while
we know that not everybody can be a visionary statesman or an
exemplary legislator or governor.

GANDHI SUKARDI, Jakarta