Observers hail PPP's threat to boycott campaign
Observers hail PPP's threat to boycott campaign
JAKARTA (JP): Political analysts hailed yesterday the United Development Party's (PPP) threat to boycott the election campaign should the government insist on deciding the moderators of broadcasted debates between contestants.
The government has restricted campaigning, from April 27 to May 23, to indoor debates broadcast by television or radio stations.
Arbi Sanit of the University of Indonesia said the PPP's maneuver could earn it the sympathy of voters, especially in the cities.
Maswadi Ra'uf, also of the University of Indonesia, said the government should heed the PPP's threat and revise the campaign rules.
Samsuddin Haris of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences said the PPP's threat would backfire if the party backed down.
The analysts were commenting on a statement by Ismail Hasan Metareum, chairman of the Moslem-oriented PPP, which protested the government's policy to appoint the moderators of campaign debates.
The policy stipulates that prerecorded broadcasts of debates, which will run for about 30 minutes, should be moderated by experts appointed by the government.
Ismail said the debates would only harm the PPP if they followed this rule.
"Should the moderator be determined by the Chairman of the Indonesian Elections Committee, how can we be sure of his or her neutrality," he said.
He said the contestants should be free to choose their moderators, but the election committee should have the right to approve them.
Arbi Sanit said the PPP would gain nothing from the debates if they followed this rule.
"If the moderator is chosen by the government, only Golkar campaigners would be free to talk because he or she would be unlikely to criticize the government," he said.
Arbi said the PPP's latest move seemed to be a show of independence, which could draw sympathy from more educated voters in the cities.
"A boycott threat is an effective way to campaign for critical voters," Arbi told The Jakarta Post.
Maswadi agreed with Arbi that threats to boycott the campaign could draw sympathy from city voters, but he said the threat was not serious.
"It's only a loud demand for fair regulations which the committee should heed," Maswadi told the Post.
"After all, it would not be easy for the election committee to bow to the PPP's demand for independent moderators," he said.
Maswadi said a debate would be unproductive if one of the participants rejected its moderator.
Samsuddin Haris said the PPP was using the controversial rule to force the government to hear its objections.
"It is unlikely that a campaign of debates will be effective for the Indonesian community which is unfamiliar with debating as a way to solve differences," he said.
Samsuddin said he was wondering if the debates would touch on "substantial matters" such political reform.
Separately, the National Election Committee released yesterday its final list of 2,285 legislature candidates.
The PPP list contains 716 candidates, the ruling political grouping Golkar has 825 candidates and the nationalist-Christian alliance Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) has 744.
The three lists altogether were a little shorter from the provisional list containing 2,293 legislature candidates.
Four of those eight candidates no longer listed are from the PPP: Yudo Paripurno (first candidate for Yogyakarta) who resigned, and Abdul Hamid (West Java), Anwar Nuris (East Java), Syaeful Ahmad Haulusy (Maluku) who died.
The other four names dropped from the final list were from Golkar: Achmad Pawennei (South Sulawesi) and Wahyono (West Nusa Tenggara) who backed off, and Abdul Rani Ramelan and Mochtar Abdul Kadir from East Java who were dropped for "administrative reasons". (aan)