Vote-getters not needed, political scholars say

SEMARANG (JP): Political scholars said yesterday that the recruitment of celebrities as vote-getters in next year's general election is an outdated trick to attract voters.

They said that vote-getters are effective only in uneducated communities because on campuses and in the cities people know they need politicians who can really defend their interests.

Riswandha Imawan, a political scholar from Gadjah Mada University, said that the use of vote-getters is a trick that tends to deceive the public.

The idea of recruiting vote-getters, he said, is to have celebrities use their popularity rather than their political skill to attract as many people as possible to vote for the party they represent.

"Political studies should stop using vote-getters because it assumes that people do not have enough of a grasp of the political games in Indonesia," Riswandha said.

"As Indonesians are increasingly educated, the vote-getting system should be stopped," he said.

The three political organizations: Golkar, the United Development Party (PPP) and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), will compete for 425 seats in the House of Representatives in next year's general election.

While the PDI and PPP do not have well-known figures in their front lines, Golkar made headlines for recruiting king of dangdut music Rhoma Irama, soap opera star Rano Karno and shadow puppet master Ki Anom Suroto -- to name a few -- to attract voters.

Golkar hopes to increase its domination in the House from its current 282 seats to at least 299. It wants to recapture the 16 seats it lost to the PDI and one to the PPP in the 1992 election.

Golkar has promised the much coveted seats to the popular personalities.

"Educated people will certainly ask why political organizations put celebrities higher on their list of prospective House members than professional politicians," said political observer Susilo Utomo from Diponegoro University.

"If it later turns out that the celebrities fail to defend the public's interests as they promise during election campaigns, people will feel cheated," he added.

MT Arifin, rector of Surakarta Muhammadiyah University, has proposed that political organizations stop recruiting vote- getters because their political ability is questionable.

He argued that those representing the people in the House should be people who are well-versed in politics and have the courage to defend average people, not just their peers.

"The vote-getting system should be stopped if Indonesia wants to see democracy flourish," he said. (har/pan)