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)