DPD campaigning more laid-back: Candidates

DPD campaigning more laid-back: Candidates

Muninggar Sri Saraswati and A. Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Campaigning for the general elections is so competitive that
some candidates seem to be trying their best in not pushing too
hard.

"Vote for me if you like; if not, that's just fine," is the
campaign slogan of Yetty W. Mualim, a candidate for the Jakarta
Regional Representatives Council (DPD) who was among the five
candidates scheduled to campaign on Monday.

Addressing a gathering at a mosque behind a plush housing
complex in Kembangan, West Jakarta, she passed out only notebooks
and bags with her picture on it instead of the customary T-shirt
giveaways.

The University of Indonesia international relations graduate
promises only that she will help the needy if elected.

"I won't promise free education for the people since this is
impossible, but I do promise, if I am elected, to give 50 percent
of my salary after tax ... to the education of poor children and
orphans, as well as women and veterans who had fought against the
(colonial) enemy in 1945," Yetty said.

For the first time this year, Indonesians will vote directly
for local council members, but the first week of the campaign
period has confirmed the public's unfamiliarity with the new
system and many of the candidates.

Under Indonesia's past electoral system, people have become
used to voting only for parties, which would then determine their
representative legislator.

DPD candidates, who have less resources than political
parties, are finding that they are having compete with the
fanfare of party campaigns; while the parties themselves are
facing the challenge of overcoming a more skeptical public than
the enthusiastic masses of 1999.

Yetty stressed that her distribution of campaign paraphernalia
to children was not "real politicking," perhaps being mindful of
warnings not to involve children in political campaigns. "Though
children have no right to vote, their sisters, brothers, parents
or relatives might see my picture and hopefully they would vote
for me. If they don't, that's fine," she said.

In Bandung, West Java, provincial DPD candidate Ginandjar
Kartasasmita drew protests on Monday from a farmers' group.

The Indonesian Farmers Association (HKTI) said its provincial
chapter had violated rules by supporting Ginandjar's candidacy.

Ginandjar, a Golkar legislator, is also deputy chairman of the
People's Consultative Assembly and served as mining and energy
minister under former president Soeharto.

"The HKTI does not support political activities," Solichin GP,
the central board's head of organizational affairs, was quoted by
Antara as saying.

Solichin, a former West Java governor, claimed that HKTI
chairman Siswono Yudhohusodo had instructed the association to
revoke its support for Ginandjar.

Solichin threatened that the HKTI would replace its West Java
chairman, Rudi Gunawan, if he refused to review the decision to
support Ginandjar.

The association's stance is still unclear regarding Siswono's
own political bid as the Indonesian Unity Party's presidential
candidate.