Susilo's victory spells death for political elitism

Susilo's victory spells death for political elitism

Ong Hock Chuan, Jakarta

The presidential runoff on Monday was a watershed event in
Indonesian politics. It marks the day when elite politics finally
died, six years after the Reformasi deal it a mortal blow.

With its demise Indonesia now has a better hope to see the
transparency and accountability that has been so slow in coming.

Elite politics is actually a holdover of the Soeharto years
where one man held all the real power. But to retain that power
Soeharto had to have a semblance of a system where the ambitious
could channel their energies to move up the political and social
ladder.

It was a safety valve and a monitoring system. It laid bare to
Soeharto the machinations of the able and the ambitious. Upward
mobility in this system was dependent on the politician's ability
to peddle influence, which often gets translated into money. Many
of them became masters of the back room deal. A wink, a nudge and
high-level positions or multimillion dollar contracts are signed,
sealed and delivered.

Many of them became to be perceived as powerful, but it was
only an illusion. Influence was mistaken for power. Occasionally,
there would be a few individuals who succeeded in converting
their influence to power. But as power was a zero sum game with
Soeharto, they were all mowed down unceremoniously when they
forgot their lot in life.

The Reformasi of 1998 changed all that by removing the center
of the power structure. However, because there was no proper
leader or institution to seize the mantle, the power was
dissipated. It flowed to a myriad destinations and was therefore
effectively nowhere. That is why politics has been so
inefficacious and frustrating to observe and the source of
disappointment for those who took part in the Reformasi.

In the political circle, however, with the center not holding,
thing began falling apart. But the political elite acted as if
nothing had changed. Like stage characters who forgot to lie down
after being stabbed a mortal blow, they carried on as before.

Although it was evident that they were losing support rapidly
Megawati Soekarnoputri and the Indonesian Democratic Party of
Struggle (PDI-P) elites acted as if they would be returned to
power. They ignored their own Cassandra, Kwik Kian Gie, when he
warned of imminent defeat because of the corruption and weakening
or morale within the party.

In Golkar, the wily Akbar Tandjung pulled all the strings so
that he would be elected the party's presidential candidate. But
for all his canniness, Akbar could not hold back the tides of
change and he lost his party's nomination.

The mirror cracked further for the political elites during the
general elections. PDI-P saw its support eroding but did nothing
to remedy the situation. Golkar was drunk on its apparent success
after its disastrous showing in 1999. The religious-based parties
fared badly. And Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's star began to rise.
That a single man, with a military past, little support and a
spanking new party could garner nearly 10 percent of the votes
should have sent warning signals to the political elites.

When the first round of presidential elections resulted in a
runoff between Megawati and Susilo, the political elites should
have been dismayed and realized that people power, a la
Indonesia, is here to stay. It was evident that the cozy club of
very rich, very influential politicians, their factions and their
coterie of factotums no longer held the power to influence the
course of elections. That power now belonged to the people.

Yet instead of courting public opinion and seeking the support
of the people what the political elites did was to fall back to
old habits by making backroom deals among each other. Hence the
unwholesome and impotent coalition of PDI-P, Golkar and assorted
parties is the mistaken belief that these parties could deliver
the votes.

What happened at the center was repeated in the periphery as
countless backroom deals took place between party chiefs and
their lieutenants in the provinces instead of an all out campaign
to win the hearts and minds of the voters. In the end it all came
up terribly short.

Susilo, however, had sensed the shift in power and
concentrated his campaigning on the voters. His advertisements
were cheesy but they at least spoke directly to the voters. He
and is deputy, Jusuf Kalla, also tirelessly toured the country
and took every opportunity to press the flesh and speak directly
to the voters.

It was not the most impressive of political campaigns but I
was the better campaign. And the fact that he had not resorted to
arcane coalition building like his rival must have helped.

In the last days of the campaigning, however, Megawati seemed
to have woken up from her somnambulistic state and traded her
natural tendency for reticence for an aggressive visibility
campaign of interviews and public appearances.

These efforts helped her to narrow the gap between her and
Susilo but it was not enough. The fact that it narrowed the gap,
however, was significant and is a hint for all aspiring
politicians on how political power is to be acquired from now on.

The political parties, if they are serious about grabbing or
retaining power in the next round of elections, will have to
begin courting public opinion and support instead of the
patronage of crusty old political elites.

This is all good news for Indonesia because it is another firm
step toward democracy that, after all, works best if you can get
a change to throw out the old rascals.

The writer is a Partner at PT Maverick Solusi Komunikasi, a PR
consultancy specializing in crisis/issue management as well as
brand communications. He can be reached at ong@maverick.co.id