Learning to lose graciously in presidential talent show

Kornelius Purba, Jakarta

To prevent the possibility of supporters of presidential candidates or the candidates themselves running amok in response to being trounced at the polls, it would highly advisable for the General Elections Commission (KPU) to enforce a simple regulation for the country's five presidential candidates.

They should be all be required to watch a popular talent-show every Saturday with their supporters to teach them how to accept failure graciously.

KPU will be very grateful if Gen. (ret) Agum Gumelar, the running mate of presidential aspirant Hamzah Haz and chairman of the Indonesian Sports Committee (Koni), invite the candidates and their supporters to watch a soccer match, say just as an example, between Surabaya Football FC (Persebaya) and Tangerang Football FC (Persita). They will see how players knock out a referee if they do not like his decision or the supporters ran amok, throwing bottles at players. This would be a negative example.

At the end of the match, KPU chairman Nazaruddin Sjamsuddin is expected to beg, "Please do not treat us like the referee."

Long before the presidential candidates signed, at the start of the one-month campaign period on Tuesday, a statement that they were "ready to accept victory or defeat" in the July 5 direct presidential election, people have been eagerly watching the elimination of the loser as a much-awaited part of a talent show on a private TV station.

Every Saturday during prime time Indosiar broadcasts the Akademi Fantasi Indosiar (AFI) search of a new pop idol that is watched by millions of viewers throughout the country. The climax of the show -- in which a dozen participants compete every week and a winner is named -- is the moment where the presenter announces the loser of the day. The "loser", who is eliminated from the show will deliver a tearful farewell speech after which he or she will also be hugged by the rest.

It would be a sensational moment if TV stations broadcast live the announcement of the winner of the presidential election, and viewers could see the scene where the four losers -- the five nominees are Megawati Soekarnoputri, Gen. (ret) Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Gen. (ret) Wiranto, Amien Rais and Hamzah Haz -- cry on the shoulder of the winner and tearfully grovel, "Congratulations."

To puzzle the viewers, they can also convey a mixed message to the winner, "Please do not forget me".

In AFI, the losers are actually not totally eliminated because they still can participate in different shows together with the winner.

The candidates have signed a pledge to accept victory or defeat. We hope that they will not repeat the behavior of several parties during the April 5 legislative election. They cited vote riggings as the main reason for their embarrassing defeat in the election.

Probably they are right in saying that there was manipulation during the counting process or even during the voting. But, putting that aside, the parties would have been unlikely to gain more votes than what they had received.

It is worth remembering the comment of former foreign minister Ali Alatas about the embarrassing result of the East Timor referendum in 1999. Before the ballot, most Indonesian officials, including the then Indonesian Military chief Gen. Wiranto -- now a presidential nominee from Golkar -- were confident that the majority of East Timorese would demonstrate their deep love for Indonesia.

In a conversation with The Jakarta Post, not long after the Indonesian defeat, Ali recalled,"They (officials) always reported that we were going to win. So they were shocked, maybe ashamed. They claimed there were a lot of violations (during the ballot). There were violations but not to the point that you can change 78 (the percentage of voters who voted for independence) compared to 22 percent (prointegration)."

Each of the five candidates have their fanatic supporters who strongly believe no one can defeat their idols. The supporters could be categorized into two groups: Ordinary people who just want their idols to win with no vested interests, and those who support a certain candidate with the expectation to profit from their win either in political or economic terms.

It will be much more difficult to handle the latter group of supporters, because the defeat of their candidate would be a severe blow for them. Many of them are businesspeople who hope that their business will rapidly expand after the win, or bureaucrats who dream of a lucrative position.

When a fan club of Susilo gathered at a funky restaurant in South Jakarta on Tuesday, the car of a palace official -- with a big State Palace sticker on the rear -- was also seen just in front of the restaurant.

"The official is ready to jump from Megawati's boat to Susilo's boat," a guest said.

These kind of people can do anything to express their anger when their candidates lose. They can easily engineer a protest or violence using ordinary people as their tool.

A few days after the July 5 election, we will at least be able to guess who will lead the country until 2009. If no candidate wins a single majority then a runoff will be held on Sept. 20.

The common people actually do not expect too much from their next leader: Economic improvement, better security and more serious law enforcement.

For them whoever wins or loses is not a big issue. However this could be different if they lose a bet on who will win the election. They would be frustrated and ultimately their wife or children would become the target of their anger.

But what if the defeated candidates themselves ran amok? It is very unlikely especially if have taken some tips from William Hung. Hung's voice was so bad that he was eliminated at a very early stage of the American Idol talent show. But his fans are probably more fanatic than the fans of the winner of the show. Kornelius Purba (purba@thejakartapost.com) is a staff writer of The Jakarta Post