Beefing up election campaign issues

By: Umar Juoro
Source: The Jakarta Post, February 3, 2009

In Indonesian politics, it is rare that substantial issues become a theme of an election campaign. Such a campaign is usually about mass mobilization, political party identity, and personality.

However, recently the claim from the incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his Democratic Party about the success of the administration in the economy became one of the main themes of the campaign, besides clean governance.

Criticism from former president Megawati Soekarnoputri, chairwoman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), is that the economy is worsening and SBY's administration is incapable of improving the economic situation significantly.

The PDI-P's criticism runs counter to the Democratic Party's campaign claims that under SBY's administration, not only is income per capita the highest in Indonesian economic history, but also unemployment and poverty are declining. The Democratic Party also claims that SBY is the only president to cut fuel price three times.

On the other hand, the PDI-P says that under SBY's rule, the welfare of the people is not improving, as indicated by the high prices of basic commodities, while the fuel price cut is not the achievement of the administration, but the result of declining world oil prices.

Even Megawati compared policies under SBY to a yo-yo, which only presented the people with an uncertain up-and-down situation without substantial improvement.

Previously, Megawati compared the policies of SBY's administration to the popular pocho-pocho dance - move one step forward, then two steps backward.

This is an interesting phenomenon, that the incumbent and the frontrunner presidential candidate come to the public with a substantial issue about the economic condition, even though neither has a strong argument yet.

This is very important, because based on various surveys, economic issues are always the top priority for voters. For the incumbent, they should convey the success that has been achieved and no longer rely so much on personality.

For the opposition, they should come up with alternative policies to convince voters that they are able to run the administration much better, with real delivery.

For SBY and Megawati, both of whom are experienced in running the government, they should be more focused on what they can do to improve the welfare of the people, and not just ask for the people's support based on loyalty and popularity.

We certainly expect the two of them will elaborate on the issue further and come up with a concrete policy and program. This is certainly a significant contribution to political education.

Unfortunately, neither SBY nor Megawati has formally announced their running mates. They seem reluctant to pick and announce their running mates ahead of the legislative election, worrying that they will not match with the results of the election.

This is understandable, but the problem is that it creates uncertainty for other political parties and likely candidates for the vice presidency. Golkar, as the largest party at this time and a strong partner of the President, is suffering from this situation.

It is widely acknowledged that Golkar plays a bigger role than the Democratic Party, and supports government economic policies to get passed in the hostile parliament.

However, Golkar cannot effectively claim the success that the Democratic Party can.

In addition, the delayed announcement of Jusuf Kalla, Golkar's chairman, as the continuing running mate of SBY creates uncertainty and opens up rivalries within Golkar.

Unlike the Democratic Party and the PDI-P, which openly campaign for certain economic issues and their own presidential candidates, Golkar's campaign lacks focused issues, with no presidential candidate or even a VP candidate of their own.

The political cost for Golkar is substantial. If the Democratic Party wins the legislative election, Golkar will likely be in third position, below the PDI-P - a serious decline of the party's election achievement.

Smaller parties also bringing forward economic issues, despite lacking depth. Newcomers the People's Conscience Party (Hanura), under the leadership of former presidential candidate Wiranto, emphasizes the issue of poverty and the failure of the current administration to overcome the problem.

The Greater Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), under leadership of former controversial general Prabowo, comes up with the issue of strengthening the people's economy, especially in agriculture, and has launched the glorious campaign of Indonesia once again being an Asian Tiger.

These campaigns are encouraging in bringing up the quality of democracy in Indonesia.

Interestingly, both leaders of the two new parties have a lot of experience in security matters.

We certainly hope political parties and their candidates can elaborate further on their claims and criticisms, and can come up with alternative policies that will lead the political dynamic into a better quality and thus create a sustainable democracy.

We are very discouraged with various posters of legislative candidates that simply show the candidates in different poses, asking for support, but with no clear idea of what they are going to do as a representative of the people if elected.

This shallow campaign should be overcome by substantial issues on offer, mainly by the major political parties and candidates.

We also expect parties such as the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) to come up with economic issues of their own, in addition to its credible campaign of clean governance.

The writer is chairman of the Center for Information and Development Economic Studies (CIDES) and senior fellow at the Habibie Center