JP/3/VCD

JP/3/VCD

And the 'AFI' winner is ... not Wiranto

Bandung/Yogyakarta/Semarang
The Jakarta Post

Music VCDs with hidden messages are the latest weapon being
deployed in a bid to derail the campaign of embattled
presidential candidate Gen (ret.) Wiranto.

The political VCDs are disguised as bootlegs of the popular
Indosiar Fantasy Academy (AFI) show, a televised talent quest
similar to the popular American Idol program.

The VCDs, which were being distributed to passersby in three
cities in the country on Thursday, begin with a recording of the
AFI concert, which is then interrupted by images of the Semanggi
and Trisakti atrocities in 1998 and 1999. A written statement
implores the viewer not to vote for the Golkar Party candidate.

The VCDs were being given away free at traffic lights and
markets in Bandung, Semarang and Yogyakarta.

This high-tech mudslinging comes days after negative campaigns
have targeted other candidates. Indonesian Party of Democratic
Struggle candidate Megawati Soekarnoputri was the target of an
edict issued by Muslim clerics against voting for women
candidates, while Democratic Party hopeful Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono was accused of his roles in the attack on the
Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) headquarters in 1996.

The covers of the anti-Wiranto VCDs are dominated by a yellow
background and bear the title "Star Quest" (Menuju Bintang).

The first eight minutes of the VCD contain the recorded AFI
concert, in which the two winners of AFI's first season, Veri and
Mawar, sing a song each. Then the sound of a trumpet drowns out
the singing and the AFI images are replaced by a banner with a
yellow background and the message: "Prosecute General Wiranto
quickly, he is responsible for human rights violations in the
Trisakti and Semanggi I & II incidents. Please do not vote for
presidential candidates with military backgrounds."

The VCDs then show documentary footage of the Trisakti and
Semanggi tragedies in which student activists were shot by
members of the armed forces. A small picture of Wiranto and the
message "Reject Wiranto" sit on the top left of the TV screen.
The images last for about 40 minutes.

The Trisakti and Semanggi incidents happened in 1998 and 1999,
when Wiranto was at the helm of the Indonesian Armed Forces
(ABRI), now the Indonesian Military (TNI).

In Bandung, a motorcycle taxi (ojek) driver, Dadan Toling, 30,
said he was given the VCD by people getting out of a minivan in
the Sindangjaya subdistrict on Thursday.

In Yogyakarta, Gandung Pardiman, the chairman of the Wiranto-
Solahudin Wahid campaign team, said campaigners had found 63
similar VCDs in several places in the city.

"The VCDs are distributed by irresponsible parties and those
who aim to discredit Wiranto," he said.

Suyatno Pedro, a member of the Wiranto campaign in Semarang,
rejected as absurd allegations the VCDs were being distributed by
Wiranto's team to give the impression he was the victim of a
dirty campaign.

Wiranto has been criticized by politicians, human rights
groups and the media about his alleged involvement in the mayhem
caused by Indonesian militias in Dili in 1999. He has been
indicted for war crimes by a United Nations-backed East Timor
court.