Political ads push for fair elections

By Stevie Emilia

JAKARTA (JP): An old man drives a bajaj (three-wheel vehicle) in peace. Suddenly, participants of political parties surround him with noisy campaigning.

As the campaign gets out of control, the crowd forces the man to yell their slogans. They wave their banners and shake the fragile vehicle. In fear, the man does whatever the crowd wants him to do. He tries to get out and yells for help but fails. In desperation, he strangles himself.

It sounds like a tragic crime story. Fortunately, it's not real. It is only one of 12 ads made by the Visi Anak Bangsa working group and currently runs on local TV.

In the above mentioned ad, the group airs its message loud and clear: "Good parties maintain peace, not fear" and "Democracy guarantees freedom in voting".

There are other community ads -- also accentuating the election's issues -- run by independent organizations, such as the Women for Election Awareness Movement, the Independent Election Monitoring Committee (KIPP) and the University Network for Free and Fair Elections (Unfrel). Even the General Election Commission (KPU) runs such ads.

All of these ads have one thing in common: it is intended to raise people's awareness on the need for a fair and just general election scheduled for June 7.

The public campaigns are deemed necessary as the coming elections are expected to be the first free and fair one in the country's history. Even though elections are held once every five years, it is no secret that past elections were marred with unfair practices.

"These community ads are intended as a little help (to ensure the free and fair election)... it turns out that the preparation for the election's guidance (by the government) is slow," said Garin Nugroho, who directed all the Visi Anak Bangsa's ads.

He said the public campaigns were important as for years people were forced to turn blind eyes on politics.

"Now, many people want to be more democratic, but they don't know how," said Garin, a film director with an international reputation.

Garin's 'special touch' can be seen through the ads he creates.

Instead of featuring well-known figures in society or politics, he presents ordinary people from various backgrounds in their daily activities, who, through simple conversation and language, manage to touch on real problems present for years within the community.

One of the ads features a man asking his barber which party he would vote for. His friend, who overhears the question, responds in a strong Javanese accent: "... formerly, we must obey our superiors. But now is a new era. There should be no more coercion. The freedom is our own creation."

Visi Anak Bangsa's 12 ads were funded by various donors, both private and international, such as USAID. Production costs for the ads were estimated at around Rp 800 million.

Filming was done in various areas such as Aceh, Bali, Manado, East Nusa Tenggara and some cities in Java. Along with research and other preparations, the ads were completed in six months. Eighty percent of the people who appeared in the ads were locals in the respective areas.

Garin said the decision to run the ads on TV was made after a meeting with various figures, who are experts in their fields, about the country's problems.

It was around September last year that four people finally organized the Visi Anak Bangsa working group. The group is a loose one without any organizational structure.

Apart from Garin, other members are Agus Pambagio of the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI), Debra Yatim of the Communication for Arts Foundation (Komseni) and Yanti Sugarda of the polling center. Each member is supported by their organizations.

"We use television as a 'window' for public in general.... But we also use broadcasting media by holding talk shows or by distributing posters, brochures and stickers," Garin said.

The talk shows were conducted in at least 28 cities, while one of the stickers, a part of the group's white-ribbon peace campaign, reads: "Stop violence. Period."

He said that the 12 ads run under four main themes: decentralization, anti-money politics, democracy values within provinces and democracy within the family.

"Civic education is not only needed by the society, but also by the political parties and the general election organizer, which in this case, is the government," Garin said.

In the creative process to make the ads, he said the main problem was the ability to see the political "diseases".

"The ad is a sort of capsule (drug), which consists of various medicine inside to cure various diseases. Diseases here are not only political diseases, but also economical and others. In the creative process, there's a need for talent to see the diseases that need to be cured," Garin said.

And according to Garin, people's response over the public campaigns were stunning.

"I am really surprised that many people know our ads," he said. He said that the polling center's survey found a high recall rate of the ads among people.

"Now, even several parties use our ideas in their campaigns," he added.

The ads have also helped the working group gain popularity.

Garin said that some people sent letters proposing to become the group's members.

"Maybe they think that we're a party," he said jokingly. "But, we're a non-partisan group." He added that it was also one of the reasons why he had to turn down requests by some political parties to create ads for them.

The group, which earlier planned to work on a short term only in producing the civic education ads, now has to work longer as they see the need to change the attitude in the House of Representatives.

"We are now preparing other ads to rock the calm 'boat' of the people's representatives," Garin said.

He promised to release the new ad soon after he gets the "fantasy" to create the content.