Most parties still use old mathods to lure voters

Most parties still use old mathods to lure voters

JAKARTA (JP): Campaign methods used to woo voters differ
little from procedures used in the past, with entertainment
prevailing over political education.

Muhammad Budyatna of Indonesia University and Hermawan
Sulistyo of the National Institute of Science made the
observation separately to The Jakarta Post on Monday.

"Campaign directors fall short of knowing how to deal with the
masses and finally resort to offering empty and irrational
promises to people," Budyatna, a mass communications expert,
said.

"This has happened for decades and people won't ask for
changes because they are used to the old campaigning methods.
People are used to being fooled (by campaigners)."

Hermawan concurred, saying people went to a campaign rally
just for fun. "The fact that many children join the rallies
proves that an electoral campaign offers nothing but amusement."

The first week of the campaign period passed relatively
smoothly, except for some disruptions to rallies held by the
ruling Golkar Party. As in the past, deafening round-the-town
motorcades have been the main component of campaign rallies.

Violations to traffic regulations and campaign rules have been
rampant during the street rallies, ranging from reckless driving
to the absence of motorbike helmets. So far, two party supporters
have died in street rally incidents, on Sunday in Jakarta, and in
Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi, last week.

Police have apparently turned a blind eye to the offenses, in
spite of their early pledge to enforce strict measures against
violators. Bandung police, for example, decided to exempt rally
attendants from punishment for breaking traffic laws, as long as
they did not endanger the public.

Budyatna said party executives still relied on mass
mobilizations because they believed that a show of force would
impress the public more than a smaller forum which was usually
restricted to educated people.

"The larger the mass which takes to streets in support of a
party, the greater the chance people may think of it of winning
most of the vote in the June polls," he said.

Coercion

Budyatna said the lack of "more educated" campaign methods was
also attributable to political coercion suffered by people during
the three-decade reign of the New Order regime, as well as
economic hardship, which is widespread throughout the country.

"People feel they find (in street rallies) their deserved
compensation for political and economic pressures," he said.

According to Budyatna, to some extent, such a reason accounted
for the current repeated acts of violence against Golkar, the
political machine exploited by the New Order to maintain power in
the past.

"While many Golkar supporters are afraid of joining rallies,
more people are sympathetic to the Indonesian Democratic Party of
Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) which has become the symbol of
resistance to a coercive regime."

Hermawan warned that current mass mobilizations were
vulnerable to clashes between supporters of rival parties,
particularly in areas where socioeconomic, ethnic and religious
differences would easily spark conflicts.

"There will be no communal clashes which involve millions of
party supporters. Conflicts will be small in size, but more
frequent."

He said he was more aware of the dangers of current election-
related violence, mainly because it would involve children, who
are commonly seen joining rallies.

Both Budyatna and Hermawan agreed that it was up to the
parties to improve their campaign methods.

"Most of the parties are in the process of building up their
identity because they were born less than a year ago. I believe
everything will be better in the next elections, especially
because only a few of the present 48 parties will survive (the
process of) natural selection," Budyatna said.

He welcomed public debates featuring party leaders, saying
they were an excellent method for people to make a selection from
the range of parties.

"But many of the debates turned into an exchange of insults,
while at the same time the audience were not critical enough to
quiz the campaigners over their respective platforms," Budyatna
said. (amd)