Presidential candidates busy countering smear campaigns

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 it seems the candidates are
wasting 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, not unlike the electorate of the United
States.

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 of the Surabaya-based Airlangga University said that
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.

"We must not ignite such sensitive issues that will lead to
more serious problems," Daniel told The Jakarta Post recently.

As the end of the campaign period approaches on July 1, 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 that the
presidential candidates respond rationally to smear campaigns.

"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
said. He hailed the way Susilo's team countered allegations that
his Democratic Party accommodated the interests of non-Muslims
too much.

"By releasing concrete data on the religious background of the
party's elected House legislators, the rumors will be quelled,"
he said.

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.

"Voters need to know everything about the candidates they are
voting for. Negative campaigns could balance the claims made by
the candidates to woo support during their campaigns," Ikrar
said.

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.