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.