The 1997 poll: A cultural event?

The 1997 poll: A cultural event?

By Arief Budiman

SALATIGA, Central Java (JP): On May 29, Indonesia will have
not one, but two general elections. The first one will be run by
the government. The second one will be run by the people. Let me
elaborate.

The first general election, the government-run general
election, will pit three contestants in a race for legislative
seats: Golkar, the United Development Party (PPP) and the
Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI). People are urged to
participate in the election, to vote for one of the three. The
government has repeatedly announced that would be to the people's
advantage to participate in this election, that the election is
their precious political right to have a say on how to best rule
the country. The Indonesian constitution states voting is a right
and not a duty, and therefore the government cannot punish people
who do not cast votes. They have the right not to vote.

There is a real possibility that quite a substantial number of
people will boycott this coming election. And here we arrive at
the second type of election which is the people's election,
joined especially by those who are dissatisfied with the
situation.

While in the government-held election people vote for one of
the three political parties, the second election would be like a
referendum, a referendum to judge whether the general election is
democratic or manipulated, acceptable or unacceptable. If people
deem it democratic and acceptable, they will cast their ballots
and vote for one of the three existing political parties, thus
fulfilling what government's wish. If they think the election
will be undemocratic and therefore unacceptable, they will
refrain from voting and boycott the election. In Indonesian
political jargon, it is said that these people vote for Golongan
Putih (Golput, the White Group).

What is Golput? The movement to boycott general elections came
about during the 1971 general election. The movement was
organized by young people, mostly university students, who
considered the newly created election regulations undemocratic.
For instance, there was a regulation, which still exists today,
that stated the number of political parties be limited by the
government. If some people wanted to create a new political
party, permission from the government had to be obtained. But
permission was usually rejected. Also, civil servants had to vote
for Golkar or face possible dismissal from their jobs. Candidates
for the legislature had to pass screening by military
intelligence, which declared whether they were "Pancasilaist" or
not, a very loose term that makes it possible to reject
candidates that were critical of the government. Rules such as
these made it very difficult to expect an independent legislature
not dominated by government supporters.

Some of these young people then decided to become Golput. They
choose not to mark any of the symbols representing the three
political parties, but marked the white margin of the ballot
paper instead, rendering their votes invalid. This is the White
Group, which has been present in every general election ever
since.

The second type of election, the people's election, has also
been called the Ola Elu election. The name came out of Yogyakarta
during the 1992 election. At that time, the administration issued
a regulation that put the non-Golkar parties at a disadvantage.
PPP and PDI reacted by removing all their banners and putting up
slogans saying aku ola elu, slang for the Javanese aku ora melu
(I don't participate). Banners from the other two parties
disappeared completely and all that were left were Golkar
banners. As if these other parties were saying: "OK, it's all
yours. I won't participate, aku ola elu." The government then
spent a lot of time and energy to persuade the two parties to
participate in general elections.

The possibility that people may join the Ola Elu group and
declare themselves part of the Golput has increased following the
recent sociopolitical developments in the country.

Since 1971, when the first general election under the New
Order was conducted, there have been regulations that gave Golkar
advantages as a government party. The most blatant one is that
civil servants have to join Golkar. Moreover, the Armed Forces,
an institution that is supposed to remain neutral, openly
supports Golkar. President Soeharto is the chairman of the
Golkar's board of directors. (When PDI, a few years ago, asked
him to be the head of their board also, arguing that the
President belongs to all people, they were turned down.) These
regulations, with some others, are more than enough to make some
people, especially the educated middle class, feel that the
existing election is undemocratic, and so they may choose to
boycott the election in protest. All these regulations are
factors that have produced Golput followers up until now.

At present, however, there have been numerous new factors that
may boost the number of Golput people. These new factors, among
others, are:

First, after the removal of Megawati as PDI chairwoman and the
attack on the party headquarters on July 27, 1996, many people
came to believe that the government did a gross injustice to
Megawati and her followers. Many people believe Megawati was
removed because the government did not want to see her named as a
presidential candidate to challenge Soeharto in the 1998
presidential election.

Megawati followers are unable to do much to fight this unjust
intervention by the government except to boycott the general
election. It seems very likely that this attitude has also been
adopted by many sympathizers of Megawati outside PDI, in protest
and in solidarity of the daughter of the nation's founding
father, Sukarno. So there is an increasing possibility that many
more people will join Golput.

Second, another factor is the blatant arrogance of some local
government officials, as shown by the policies which have been
carried out intensively in Central Java, such as "yellowization".
As reported by the media, many public places (such as trees and
traffic signs) in the big cities of Central Java have been
painted yellow, the color of Golkar. Protests came especially
from PPP, but to no avail. So they took the case into their own
hands by repainting public utilities in their original colors.
However the next day, the government, guarded by the police and
military, repainted these places yellow again.

This act of protest by PPP has gained much sympathy from many
people outside the party. The PPP branch in Surakarta has also
indirectly threatened to boycott the election campaign in protest
of some of the campaigning regulations set by the government. In
other words, Golput has also emerged within the political parties
participating in the election.

In the old days, about 10 percent of eligible voters did not
cast votes, or for some reason made their ballots void. These
people are considered as Golput and the percentage has been
stable up to this time. (It also has to be noted that not all of
the 10 percent are Golput followers in the true sense of the
word, namely that not all of them consciously reject voting.
Maybe many of them do not vote for other reasons, such as
illness, absence, or they do not understand how to vote, etc.)
Some agree that true Golput members primarily come from the
educated middle class. However, after July 27 and the aggressive
"yellowization" policy of the government in Central Java, a
second type of Golput has entered the stage.

This second type of Golput is different from the first. They
are not the educated middle class. They are predominantly lower
class, ex-followers of the late president Sukarno, some are also
Moslems. They are more numerous than the first type. Thus, it
would be unsurprising if the number of Golput increased in the
May 29 election.

It is then quite understandable if the government seems
nervous in facing this election. The Armed Forces Chief of
Sociopolitical Affairs Gen. Syarwan Hamid was quoted by the
Indonesia Times as warning that any attempt "... to encourage
people not to vote is against the law". The President himself has
warned that he would "clobber" those who persuaded other people
not to vote. Sri Bintang Pamungkas, leader of an unofficial
opposition party, was arrested because he sent Idul Fitri cards
to people, urging them to boycott the election. However, in major
cities across Indonesia, there is graffiti and posters urging
people to boycott the 1997 election. Even the Catholic church
made a statement on Feb. 13, saying it would not be a sin to
refuse to vote in this year's general election "if you really do
not feel represented and are sure with all your heart that your
aspirations are not being heard".

So, the Ola Elu election is coming and Golput numbers are
increasing. However, it will not change anything politically.
With the existing election rules, Golkar will still rule, the
military will still be dominant in directing the country's
political course, and many people speculate that Pak Harto will
be reelected in 1998. The commotion of Golput, the Independent
Election Monitoring Committee created by critical intellectuals,
and other similar things are no more than a symbolic political
battle, not a real one. As Cornelis Lay, a Gadjah Mada University
lecturer, said recently, the May general election in Indonesia
will be a cultural event, not a political one. It will not change
anything politically, it will only be, as the government keeps on
saying, a big festival of democracy. The festival is still more
important than the democracy.

The writer is a sociologist and researcher based in Salatiga.