Hard times for campaign materials vendors

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta

The July 5 presidential election will probably produce no clear winner for the country's top job, forcing the two winners to contest a runoff scheduled for Sept. 20. In between, they are likely to exhaust all resources at their disposal in a bid to win the presidency.

As a result, there could be a shopping spree for campaign paraphernalia, from T-shirts and watches to handkerchiefs bearing the candidates' images, and it should be a moment when vendors reap windfall profits from an intensified presidential campaign.

Such was the prediction among vendors to entertain themselves in the midst of a slump in the sale of materials related to presidential campaigning, although campaigns have already been running for two weeks.

"That is our only hope -- for earning a small profit after the current slump," Hasan, a vendor who runs a stall in the corridor leading to the Senen electronics market, Central Jakarta, told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

He said that the current situation was not comparable with that in the run-up to the April 5 legislative election.

"Back then, we could sell over 6,500 T-shirts bearing political party logos or portraits of legislative candidates. But now, we are lucky to peddle just one- or two-dozen T-shirts," he said.

He set the price according to how many garments buyers ordered from him. "If a buyer orders by the hundred, the garments are available at Rp 5,000 apiece. However, we set a higher price of Rp 6,000 to Rp 6,500 if orders are made by the dozen," he said.

Amid bearish sentiment, he said that, indirectly, the candidate nominated by the Democratic Party, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, had saved the day.

"When I was tired of waiting for customers, along came some of his supporters who ordered up to 1,000 T-shirts. Last time, his supporters from Manado, North Sulawesi, ordered 500 T-shirts," he said, adding that T-shirts and watches bearing Susilo's image were the most sought-after items.

In Southeast Asia's largest textile hub, Tanah Abang market, West Jakarta, garment vendors experienced similar conditions.

Peggi, a garment vendor who usually sells children's apparel, said that he was only able to strike a deal with customers for printing one or two dozen T-shirts.

He blamed the infrequency of street rallies during presidential campaigning for the slump in sales of campaign bric- a-brac.

"More rallies mean that more people take to the streets wearing T-shirts depicting their candidate of preference, but we've seen none in the past two weeks," he told the Post.

As with his fellow vendors in Senen market, times were good when Susilo supporters ordered a large number of campaign T- shirts.

Moving eastward to Kenari market, Central Jakarta, conditions were no better.

Yuni, a vendor who diligently watches her stalls on the side of bustling Jl. Salemba, said that her greatest fortune so far was when a member of the campaign team of National Mandate Party (PAN) candidate Amien Rais ordered five-dozen T-shirts.

"I'll probably vote for Amien, because his T-shirts sell the most," she said, chuckling.