Excessive zealotry

The campaign for the general election is due to begin in about a month's time. Some, though, have already made a running start to this part of the intoxicating feast of democracy.

Occasionally there has been displays of excessive zealotry. The unrest that shook Pekalongan during the past week, for example, was an example of how some of the contesting parties have been overly enthusiastic to inject some excitement into this part of the lead-up of to the election campaign.

Without naming offenders, this overzealotry has created some undesirable side effects. For many, ensuring victory for a particular contestant has become more important than fairness, playing by the rules and maintaining peace and security in the community.

We hope that there will be no more disturbances such as that in Pekalongan. With luck, the three contestants and the government will be able to draw lessons from the Pekalongan incident. Apart from playing by the rules, those managing the campaign should consider community psychology and sociology.

We agree with the Coordinating Minister for Political Affairs and Security, Soesilo Soedarman, who remarked that the Pekalongan upheavals should lead to greater introspection.

Have we been taking the right steps so far? Golkar, whose victory is a foregone conclusion, should avoid stumbling over trivial incidents.

All parties must remember that the staging of general elections are part of our efforts to establish democracy. But we do not want democracy to be established on the basis of blood and arson. The success of the general election is measured not by which contestant emerges the winner, but by the opportunity for every contestant to attain the best possible result in a spirit of fairness while observing all the rules of the game.

-- Media Indonesia, Jakarta