Excessive zealotry

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