The campaign is underway. Rather a damp squib so far. No traffic congestion (well, a bit today as President SBY's Democratic Party was in action at Jakarta's main stadium).
People seem to be thoroughly unimpressed by the whole thing. On March 18, Kompas newspaper carried a report from the city of Yogyakarta, Central Java, where one neighborhood has declared itself a campaign-free zone, with no flags, banners or posters in sight. Apparently the biggest problem was not complaints from the party faithful, but protests from unemployed youths tempted by the money on offer.
Money? Yes. Apparently parties pay Rp20,000 (about US$1.60) per flag put up. In Jakarta, the going rate for a banner is Rp150,000 per month. But it's not only flags and banners that bring in the cash. It's long been established practice here to pay people to attend party rallies during the campaign. But while in previous elections, lunch, a T-shirt and Rp10,000 would bring out the masses, all parties are paying at least Rp50,000 this year. Gerindra, the party vehicle of disgraced former general former (i.e. discharged) general Prabowo Subianto is paying an eye-popping Rp100,000 (US$8.30, or 9 packs of cigarettes here) per head. This may not sound much, but the minimum wage in Jakarta is only just over Rp1 million per month. A Gerindra rally with 10,000 people would cost the party Rp1 billion, or some 7% of its election fund.
So, it may be that the parties are saving the big campaigning (and spending) for their second and final allocated day of the campaign. With 38 parties each paying at least Rp50,000, as long as they are prepared to move between locations, millions of Indonesia's unemployed could make a tidy packet this month. Might even help ease the recession.
And given that people seem to be getting more cynical about the parties and their extravagant promises, there is of course no guarantee they'll actually vote for the parties whose money they take. The people might just have the last laugh.........
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2 comments:
I love the idea of Indonesian politicians GIVING money to the people instead of embezzling it as they usually do. Saving that for when they get into office, I guess.
The problem is that they've got to get the money back somehow. That's where the embezzling comes in once they're elected. And is of course the reason why they want to get elected in the first place.
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