Political ads push for fair elections

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.