DPD candidates find new ways of campaigning

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Perhaps Bambang Warih Koesoemo wants to convey the message straightforwardly. To every constituent he meets during his political campaign these days, the former legislator hands his name card. Below his name it reads "Senator".

Yes, Bambang is campaigning to be a member of the Regional Representatives Council (known locally by its acronym DPD), the closest equivalent to a U.S. senator.

The former legislator, who is now an activist, aspires to join Indonesia's newest political creation, since the DPD was only incorporated into the system for this year's election.

DPD candidates, who are not party-based, will be elected directly by voters on April 5 in the first DPD election. The country's 32 provinces will have four DPD members each in the People's Consultative Assembly, which will also include members of the House of Representatives.

Bambang, and former minister Sarwono Kusumaatmadja, both DPD candidates from Jakarta, are a rare breed in politics here -- they have dared to break with past campaigning practices.

The two candidates have shunned the old campaign methods -- long speeches, musical entertainment and street parades.

"For me, political campaigning doesn't simply mean winning as many votes as possible: It's part of the lengthy process of political education. Therefore, I prefer to talk with voters in an informal way," said Bambang on Wednesday, a founder of a non governmental organization, Uni Sosial Demokrat (Unisosdem).

Bambang has therefore declined to use buildings offered by the Jakarta General Elections Commission thus far.

During the first and second rounds of campaigning, he said, he held talks with marginalized people such as the homeless and those targeted for eviction by the city administration. Jakarta is notorious for its often brutal eviction programs.

Bambang said he preferred to talk directly with people because he would get first-hand information about their problems.

He said that he realized that by this method of campaigning he would not reach a huge number of voters. Therefore, he said, he had also employed other methods like distributing three million copies of printed material, which had cost him Rp 500 million (US$ 59,000). These comprise 40 types of posters, stickers, leaflets, booklets and other printed matter.

The reason? "Because I don't want only to introduce myself as a DPD candidate. I want also to educate the people about many things," he said.

Separately, Sarwono said that his preference to talk with voters was based on a conviction that they did not take politicians' speeches seriously.

"They've heard it all before," he said.

Campaigning via discussion, he said, would impress the public because they would become actively involved. Sarwono did not restrict his discussion to people in meeting places but at other venues too, including voters' homes.

"With such an informal situation, I want people to express their ideas, complain about anything." Their aspirations would become a valuable contribution if he was elected, said Sarwono, who is also a former secretary-general of the Golkar Party.

He said he had used discussion-based campaigning while he was still in Golkar, the formidable political machine of former president Soeharto that managed to keep the autocrat in power for more than three decades.

He said the 22-day period for campaigning was less than adequate but was using it to remind the public about him and his past activities.

"You can't expect too much from campaigning if you haven't previously made any political investment -- if you did nothing for people in the past," Sarwono, a former activist, added.