Presidential candidates busy countering smear campaigns

Bambang Nurbianto Jakarta

With all the challenges ahead for the new president of a nation still in the doldrums, sometimes the candidates seem to waste too much energy in refuting what many might consider pointless issues.

Retired general Wiranto has appropriately explained as best as he possibly can his side of serious allegations of human rights abuses leveled against him. But should Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, another retired general, bother to respond to the rumors that he is anti-Muslim?

Yes -- if one understands the importance of religion as a campaign issue here.

Hence the explanation of Susilo's camp of the religious composition of the new legislators of the Democrat Party which nominated him as their presidential candidate -- it turned out that the 57 legislators were mostly Muslim, not non-Muslim as rumored through the recent text messages. At last, one aspiring voter for Susilo shifted preference to another candidate, even though she had been told that the SMS was not true.

"Just to be on the safe side," she said.

Sociologist Daniel Sparringa said that such issues, used to discredit candidates ahead of the country's first ever direct presidential election on July 5, would lead to "unnecessary ideological debates".

Daniel said anyone exploiting issues such as race and religion in campaigning has committed two mistakes.

First, spreading misinformation about candidates violates the law because it spreads false information aimed to discredit other contestants. And exploiting such issues could spark racist sentiments or feelings against other societal groups, he said.

The five presidential candidates have each had a good share of what they saw as smear campaigns. Apart from negative campaigning from other contestants, text messages, e-mails, facsimiles and VCDs contained what they saw as libel.

The camp of candidate Amien Rais is also busy denying reports, that if elected president, he would ban the traditional practices of mass prayer gatherings, often held for the dead, for instance (tahlilan) or, recently, in support of presidential candidates (istighosah). Such events are often held by members of the country's largest Muslim organization, the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), while Amien is the former chair of the second largest Muslim organization, Muhammadiyah. The latter is seen as having a "modernist" interpretation of Islam, and attempts to sift out any traditions that go against the basic teachings of Islam. NU is known for having more tolerance toward traditions.

Political analyst Ikrar Nusa Bhakti suggested, "Overreaction to smear campaigns without providing a clear explanation will only spark further controversy," meaning that it will pose more problems and disadvantages for a candidate. He hailed the way Susilo's team countered allegations that his Democratic Party accommodated the interests of non-Muslims too much.

Although smear campaigns violate the law, Ikrar, however, does not recommend that the candidates concerned take legal action.

"This will be time consuming and counter-productive to their campaign activities," he said.

He said negative campaigning was not only legitimate but also necessary to provide voters with the other side of the presidential candidates.

Law No. 23/2003 on presidential election

Article 23 - Paragraph 2: Campaigning must not involve acts that insult an individual, religion, ethnic group, race, group or candidate. - Paragraph 3: Campaigning must not aim at insulting or provoking individuals and/or groups within the society.