Putting the Boot in

The election campaign is well underway, and dear me! What a bore. The problem is that all the candidates are terrified of saying anything they could be attacked for, so are sticking to safe ground. The first presidential debate was a classic example. Former (failed) president Megawati actually did rather well, saying more in one evening than she said during her who pitiful two years in the palace. Anyway after a two-minute waffle about overseas workers, President SBY actually said he "agreed with her 200%". Hmm. Hardly a war of words. Incidentally Megawati seems to be running the same campaign as her (failed) attempt to get reelected in 2004 when she went on and on about how she was the prettiest candidate (like this time, the others were all men you see). If she makes the joke ONE MORE TIME, Pemiloopy is going to feature an unkind jibe about the size of her behind.

Anyway, in the absence of any real debates, thank Dawkins there is some entertainment to be had. It's known as "black campaigning", and it's much more fun that the ordinary kind. For example, because they are too frightened to attack SBY directly because he is too popular (yes, I know how weird that sounds), his opponents have decided his mild-mannered running mate Boediono is fair game. So what have they come up with? "He's a neoliberal!" Gosh. What's that then? Well, it's something to do with the free market (you know, not subsidizing fuel for rich car owners or trying to buck the market). Presumably they sat down and thought this one up together. What has Boediono done to deserve this heinous insult? Not sure, but it seems he got a PhD from the Wharton School of Economics, which is a FOREIGN place. Even then, it doesn't add up. In the first place, when he was finance minister, Boediono was responsible for paying off lots of Indonesia's foreign debt (accumulated due to the incompetence of Kalla's Golkar Party) and twice substantially reduced inflation. And he helped invent something called Pancasila Economics, which is based on the village system and is aimed at reducing inequality.

In more "black campaigning":

• Boediono's wife is not really a Muslim, and may even be a Catholic (too silly for words)
• Megawati sold off national assets when she was president (er... true, but necessary)
• Both SBY and his running mate are Javanese (er... true but so what)
• Wiranto was involved in human rights violations in the past (see above)
• Prabowo has dual-nationality (not true, and why on earth would it matter?)
• SBY and Boediono's wives don't wear the Islamic headscarf (true, but so what?)
• Prabowo is immensely rich, but is proposing a "people's economy (OK, that one's true)
• Kalla's companies would become nepotistic and corrupt if he is elected (become?)
• Prabowo was involved in human rights violations in the past (duh...)
• SBY is a ditherer who finds it hard to make decisions (true)

You see. Much more fun that agreeing with each other 200%

The Things They Say (3)

Ex-general Wiranto guested on a chat show last week on Metro TV, a station owned by Suarya Paloh, a key figure in the Golkar Party (the vehicle of president Suharto during Indonesia's New Order military dictatorship). Wiranto is running for vice-president, despite saying he only wanted the top job (see Number Ones Only Please) - the presidential candidate is chair of er... the Golkar Party. Well, that explains the fawning and sycophantic nature of the interviewer.

Anyway, Wiranto was asked how he came to have so much money. "I was surprised to find myself so rich", he purred. Apparently he scraped together Rp81 billion (around US$8 million) from his meager salary as Army commander to buy a few parcels of land, and inflation did the rest.

Anyway, on to the thorny question of human rights. "Are you a human rights abuser?" smiled Andy F. Noya, the friendly interviewer. Shameful as it is to report, the audience laughed!! Perhaps there is something funny about murdering people, burning their homes, pouring concrete in irrigation ditches and herding thousands of people across the border that had escaped me...

Anyway, back to the ex-general. After saying that claims made at the time of his unsuccessful 2004 presidential bid were no longer valid, he had the bare-faced cheek to claim he had never been indicted. Hmmm. Let's have a look at The Guardian dated 25 February 2003. In case any Wiranto fans are too lazy to use their right fingers for anything other than shooting unarmed civilians, allow me to reproduce the headline here:

UN indicts general for East Timor crimes
Clear enough. That makes the above quite a lie. Murdering pig.

The Nasty Party

So it's getting dirty already. Disgraced former general Prabowo Subianto, who had to settle for the running for the number two job after Indonesia refused to vote for him in large enough numbers, is starting to show his true colours. Aside from a wish list of unimaginable expense (lots of money for all those those poor people who grow the rice he eats and presumably clean out the stables inhabited by his 90 horses), he is playing the bash-the-foreigners card. Aside from his thinly-veiled attacks on the ethnic Chinese in his TV ads (also foreigners in his eyes - he can't stand them either), he and Mega have made attacks on the influence of foreign culture - which they (actually Mega doesn't say much) say is responsible for Indonesians' ignorance of traditional culture etc etc.

So if he hates foreigners so much, two questions spring to mind. Why are he and Mega using US consulting firm Rob Allyn to boost their image (although their team issued embarrassed half denials to detik.com); and why (yet alone how) does he have US$7,572,916 to his name, according to the report he made of his assets to the General Election Commission? Oh, and Rp1,579,376,223,359 of assets in Indonesian currency, reports Kompas (30/5/09). That should come in handy if he either wants to pay off the voters or buy troublemakers if the vote doesn't go his way.

In other dirty tricks: because of his appalling human rights record, Prabowo can't even get a US visa, and the civilized world presumably views the prospect of his election with horror. Prabowo is absolutely desperate for foreign politicians to attack him so he can portray himself as a victim. Sensibly nobody is falling into that trap, so there's nothing for it but to invent news of intervention by the wily and perfidious whiteys. Hence the story in detik.com today in which Manullang, a former director of Indonesian Military Intelligence (the organization that murdered Indonesian human rights activist Munir), claims that US intelligence are actively trying to ensure a victory for incumbent President SBY. If the foreigners like him, he must be BAAAAAD, goes the theory.

Given Prabowo's past - he has been accused of attempting a coup d'etat in 1998 as well as being behind the anti-Chinese riots in Jakarta earlier the same year, and has admitted kidnapping democracy activists (who were on the same side as Megawati at the time...) - if he is already playing dirty, what will he do if he loses? Or does he hope to gain power without ever gaining a parliamentary majority as another former military man did in 1933?