Learning to lose graciously in presidential talent show

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