T-shirt makers prepare for election orders

Urip Hudiono, Jakarta

Awaiting for the news as to who will qualify to contest the presidential election, T-shirt makers at Senen Market, Central Jakarta, said they had yet to see an increase in orders for the next campaign period.

The General Elections Committee (KPU) will announce on Saturday which candidate pairs are to join the July 5 polls, while the presidential campaign period is slated to start on June 1 for one month.

Several T-shirt makers, however, have prepared samples and stockpiles of T-shirts for the most likely candidates: the Democratic Party's Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Jusuf Kalla.

Rizal, owner of the Limbre T-shirt kiosk on the third floor of the market, said on Friday that he had made a sample T-shirt with a picture of Yudhoyono and Kalla printed on its front, in case any orders for such shirts arose during the campaign period.

"We are offering this SBY-Kalla shirt for Rp 7,000 (77 US cents)," he said, referring to Susilo's popular nickname while showing the shirt, which has a collar and sleeves in the blue of the party color.

Asked why he had readied only a sample of the Democratic Party's pair and not others, Rizal explained that Susilo-Kalla shirts were the ones most sought.

"Besides, at the time we made the shirt, from what we heard on the news, only SBY and Kalla had completed their registration with the KPU," he told The Jakarta Post.

Ade, owner of a T-shirt and souvenir kiosk on the ground floor of the market, told the Post that he had yet to receive any confirmed orders from any campaign team.

Some campaign officials who had come to his kiosk, Ade said, had just browsed around to ask the price of such shirts.

"They also asked if a down payment was required and whether the shirts could be delivered," he said, explaining that he would only receive minimum orders of 1,000 shirts, and that down payments and delivery fees would depend on the size of the order.

As with Rizal, Ade said he had also prepared 2,500 Susilo- Kalla T-shirts. Besides selling the shirts for Rp 5,000 to anyone interested, Ade said the one-size-fits-all, self-designed shirts were also samples.

"I received an order from an official of the SBY-Kalla campaign team last week for 1,000 pins at Rp 1,000 (11 U.S. cents) each. Who knows? Whey might be interested in ordering T- shirts next time," he said.

Ade, however, was careful to stock just enough shirts to ensure that he would not suffer losses from unsold stock.

"You can see for yourself that I still have a pile of unsold party shirts from the previous (general election) campaign," he said, pointing to a stack of yellow T-shirts on his display rack.