JAKARTA, July 4 — When Indonesia's 176 million voters trickle into the 450,000 polling stations next Wednesday, they are likely to stick with tradition and pick their new president based on personality and appearances.
Analysts and at least 12 out of 15 voters The Straits Times spoke to agreed that what the candidates say about hot issues like economic development matter little to them.
Said car mechanic Agus Rahmat, 31: “I don't believe in the programmes. The candidates may say one, two or three things now and forget them when elected.”
Historian Asviwarman Adam from the Indonesian Institute of Science said that Indonesians of all backgrounds tend to choose leaders by looking at various factors — from ethnic to religious to aesthetic. For instance, they prefer candidates who are Javanese — as over 60 per cent of Indonesia's population live on the island — and Muslim — like 85 per cent of the population.
Money politics, while still rampant, is less of a factor as voters are now smarter and will keep the money doled out to them by candidates, but vote for whoever they want in the polling booth.
In the country's first general election in 1955, supporters of the nation's biggest Islamic organisation, Nahdlatul Ulama, voted overwhelmingly for candidates associated with the organisation, even if they had scandal-ridden pasts.
More recently in the 2004 elections, the Jakarta Post newspaper pointed out that current President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono won big in an upscale area in Depok, West Java as women — who made up 70 per cent of voters there — were charmed by his “wise-looking demeanour”.
Housewife Ranti Sofyan, 36, agreed he had the “characteristics and bearing” of a president that his rivals, current Vice- President Jusuf Kalla and former President Megawati Sukarnoputri, lacked.
Sociologist Imam B. Prasodjo from the University of Indonesia said it was realistic to expect that the majority of voters, especially those with little education, would ignore track records of candidates.
Generally, better-educated voters have shown a greater interest in exploring a candidate's background before they make their pick and would tend to shun the two vice-presidential candidates with poor human-rights records. They are former generals Prabowo Subianto and Wiranto who are pairing with Megawati and Kalla respectively.
Political scientist Amir Santoso said this is why candidates could get away with flooding the media with promotional advertisements and commissioning opinion polls on election results, without having to lay out their specific plans for leading the government.
“They can get the benefit from herd behaviour because a lot of people would vote for a certain individual, if they think that others are going to do the same,” he said. — Straits Times
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