Lampung Mayor candidates take aims at young voters

Oyos Saroso H.N., The Jakarta Post, Bandarlampung

After completing their national exams, a group of senior high school students were excited seeing someone bringing posters of the box office film The Matrix. They approached the stranger, who was seen distributing the posters to students, but on closer inspection the students were rather surprised.

All the outfits and backgrounds on the posters looked like the Matrix films, but the heads of cool actors Keanu Reeves and Lawrence Fishburne had been replaced with headshots of Bandarlampung mayor and deputy mayor candidates, Irfan Nuranda Djafar and Kuswandi. The poster proclaimed that "the problems in Lampung are similar to The Matrix."

Although some students expressed disappointment because they didn't get cool pictures of Keanu Reeves, they still grabbed the posters anyway and took them home to put on their room walls.

Dana E. Rachmat, a member of the Irfan-Kuswandi campaign team, said that the poster was aimed at making a comparison of the situation in Bandarlampung and the setting in The Matrix, along with it's sequel The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions.

The films tell the story of the struggle of Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves), Trinity (Carrie Anne Moss) and Morpheus (Lawrence Fishburne) to free Earth residents from the threat of a machine that has taken power.

The Earth's saviors have to fight hard to crush the machine in 72 hours, and if they fail, some 250,000 sentinels (machines looking like octopus) will break through the Zion and destroy humanity.

"The message is simple. Through the posters, we would like to get the message across that Irfan and Kuswandi will work hard to save Bandarlampung from crime, moral decadence, poverty and others. We want to build an image that fits with the spirit of youngsters. The candidates are also young people who like challenges," said Dana.

The poster distribution is part of Irfan-Kuswandi campaign team's efforts to lure young and first time voters to vote for them.

The strategy is well worth pursuing, as of the 550,000 eligible voters in Bandarlampung, 20 percent are first time voters.

Besides distributing The Matrix poster, Irfan and Kuswandi have also actively approached youngsters through various avenues, including music concerts. When they declared their participation in the Bandarlampung election, they held a concert in Saburai field in Bandarlampung's downtown, featuring artist Yuke AFI. Yuke represents Bandarlampung in the Akademi Fantasi Indosiar (AFI) contest in Jakarta, which is similar to the American Idol series. She is a magnet to charm Bandarlampung youngsters, especially city teenagers (Anak Baru Gede).

Although they are very active in luring first time voters, Irfan and Kuswandi have not been ignoring other segments of voters. Besides attracting young voters, the pair were also attempting to entice rural and poor people by frequently visiting traditional markets and providing free medical treatment sessions.

Media observer Budi Santoso admitted that among the six pairs running in the June 27 election, the Irfan-Kuswandi team was the most aggressive in approaching first time voters.

"Irfan is the youngest mayoral candidate and it is natural that he is aggressive in attracting first time and young voters. The competition is indeed tough as there are six pairs of candidates that will be competing in the election, but their chance is quite good to win the battle," said Budi.