Presidential candidates ignore support from advisers

Presidential candidates ignore support from advisers

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Campaign teams established to boost the chances of presidential
candidates in the coming presidential election were unlikely to
have much effect because they lacked the necessary expertise in
image management and mass communication, a political analyst
said.

The teams were unlikely to cooperate well with presidential
aspirants because most candidates were not focussed on improving
their public image, political analyst Daniel Sparringa of
Surabaya-based Airlangga University told The Jakarta Post on
Saturday.

"Most of the candidates fail to listen to the advice of their
campaign teams and consider themselves already selling
(themselves and their message)," Daniel said.

"Promises and commitments are not enough to win people's
support, it's what people think about the promises that counts."

Political campaigning was a new thing for Indonesian
politicians and so far none of them were doing a good job, he
said.

"Campaigning is about building a political image and you need
people with experience to do that. We don't yet have these
experts," Daniel said.

He was commenting on the establishment of campaign teams such
as the Amien Rais Center for the National Mandate Party (PAN)
leader and presidential candidate, the Gus Dur Crisis Center for
Abdurrahman Wahid of the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the
Mega Center for President Megawati Soekarnoputri of the
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

The Mega Center has suggested a revision to the PDI-P's
original plan of pushing for a straight win in the first round of
presidential elections by preparing a B plan if Megawati fails to
win a majority vote.

Admitting problems in creating a "positive and humble" image
for Megawati so far, the Mega Center aims to portray a more
humane picture of the PDI-P leader.

"Megawati herself has admitted that there were a lot of things
she should have done before (the legislative election) to improve
her image," Mega Center member Cornelys Lay told the Post over
the weekend.

He said PDI-P party members now understood they had failed to
effectively communicate with the people.

"We do not expect the race to finish in the first round, as we
still need more time to build our new image," Cornelys said.

Public relations expert Wimar Witoelar said image building was
a new field politicians and their campaign teams had to learn.

"I think it is a positive development that politicians are
trying to win people's support instead of buying their votes,"
Wimar said.

However, from the public relations point of view, no
presidential candidate was selling themselves effectively, he
said.

Indonesia will hold its first direct presidential election on
July 5, with the run-off set for Sept. 20.