A Decoupled Campaign

Well the public phase of the campaign is now over. For the three days prior to polling day on 9 April there is a "quiet period" - posters and flags are supposed to be removed.

Even more than 5 years ago, this was a campaign that showed the distance between the parties and their voters. In fact there were really two entirely separate campaigns: a minor one about politics and a more important one about money.

The political campaign took the form of TV debates and earnest articles in the more highbrow press where the few issues dividing parties were aired between commercials and among the ads. This was about the only time anybody took the parties seriously. The bulk of the campaign was frankly devoted to taking advantage of them.

The money side of the campaign was alluded to in an earlier post. On a popular TV Indonesian show today a reporter was speaking to people at campaign rallies. Not only did people freely admit they had only come for the money (R20,000 claimed one mother) and had attended many rallies but were still confused who to vote for, but many attendees could not even name the party whose T-shirts they were wearing. This included people wearing the yellow of the Golkar Party. Other opportunities to make money were there for the celebs. The Gerindra Party of disgraced former general Prabowo had a singing trio modestly called the 3 Divas, which includes Krisdayanti - who is more often seen on TV advertising vitamin supplements and laxatives. Meanwhile the group Radja performed rallies for four different parties.

The media also had a laugh at the politician's expense. on a TV show called Kontes de Parpol, the hosts abused the party representatives present in the studio while making money from an SMS text opinion poll.

The campaign has been underway for more than two weeks, and many people still have no idea about what the parties stand for. It seems likely they will vote for familiar faces because the people (but not the parties?) at least realize that they can get away with not voting for the parties whose money they took. Which means the Democratic Party of incumbent President SBY should be OK. It remains to be seen how many people will have fallen for the flood of Gerindra ads paid for by Prabowo's billionaire brother...