YOUNG AND FRESH

Barack Obama's recent comments about small town working-class voters can be used to understand Ahmad Heryawan and Dede Yusuf's win in the West Java gubernatorial election.

The strong Democratic Party's U.S. presidential candidate stated: "It's not surprising that they get bitter, they cling to... religion... as a way to explain their frustrations."

Indonesians, including the Sundanese -- the largest ethnic in West Java -- are now economically frustrated: Increasing prices of staple foods, kerosene shortages, long queues to buy cooking oil, high unemployment -- the list goes on.

Then, new faces -- Heryawan, nominated by the Islamist Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), and Dede, a former action film star and legislator of the Muslim-based National Mandate Party -- offer the "audacity of hope".

In their television campaign, Heryawan and Dede use -- it's not clear whether they actually have permission to do so -- a picture of Obama and say: "It's time for the youth to lead."

Meanwhile, the grand old parties, Golkar and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) came with old faces. Golkar supported Danny Setiawan, the incumbent West Java Governor, while PDI-P, chaired by former president Megawati Soekarnoputri, endorsed retired general Agum Gumelar.

Unlike the recent Jakarta gubernatorial election in which the two parties managed to win Fauzi Bowo, they could not come up with a candidate in West Java.

The nationalist parties did not learn from their success in defeating PKS in the Banten gubernatorial election and Tangerang regent where Ratu Atut and Ismeth Iskandar were elected as governor and regent respectively.

Many cities in West Java such as Bandung, Bekasi and Bogor are strongholds of the PKS. Directly-elected Depok Mayor Nurmahmudi Ismail was the party's former president.

Regencies in the provinces, such as Indramayu, Tasikmalaya and Cianjur, have recently approved sharia-inspired bylaws --although some non-governmental organizations criticized the regulations for violating women's rights.

Peaceful demonstrations joined by hundreds, up to thousands of students and mosques activists who demanded the establishment of caliphs regularly took place in those cities.

The rallies' participants mostly were not aware of the bloody history of caliphs as stated in a new translated book Kebenaran yang Hilang (The Missing Truths) by slain Egyptian author Farag Fouda.

They ignore the facts that three of the four caliphs, Umar, Ustman and Ali were killed. The youth supporters do not know that the absence of control over political power -- check and balances -- had created chaos in the succession in their favorite political system.

The fundamentalists do not believe vox populi, vox dei (The voice of the people is the voice of God), instead they prefer vox ulema, vox dei.

The West Java floating masses are surely not aware of the exclusive ideology of PKS. The party's cadres cleverly do not wear religious clothing, and instead promote anti-corruption policies.

The recent arrest of Al Amin Nasution of the United Development Party (PPP) -- which supported Agum Gumelar -- could be seen as evidence that the behavior of the New Order parties under the corrupt regime of Soeharto can still be found.

The Corruption Eradication Commission caught Al Amin red-handed for bribery at the Ritz Carlton Jakarta. Media reported the commission also nabbed a prostitute with the legislator.

The public still clearly remembers the Golkar legislator who was caught literally naked in a sex video with a dangdut singer last year. Yahya Zaini then resigned as a member of the House of Representatives.

The current media blow up on padlocked masseuses may also motivate voters to chose candidates espousing better morals: Heryawan and Dede.

If it was a soccer game, Danny (Golkar) and Agum (PDI) would be badly injured before entering the soccer field to face young and energized players. Their faces would be covered with s---t thrown by the spectators.

Many of the "floating masses" are those who were described in a book titled Who Speaks for Islam?, co-authored by John L. Esposito -- a growing number of Muslims who love democracy, reject violence but hate secularism. Muslims who love American food and blue jeans, but hate corrupt and hypocrite candidates, especially nominees from the two pillars of the New Order regime: Golkar and the military.

The West Java election will probably affect the presidential elections next year. Whoever the candidate supported by PKS is, he -- the party dislikes the idea of a female president -- would have more of a chance to win the race. And the president is expected to share his power with the party and acted as a devout Muslim.

Many more sharia-inspired bylaws would be approved by the regional councils and the much-opposed anti-pornography bill would be passed into law. The initiatives would not necessarily come from PKS cadres as many opportunist legislators, mostly from the Golkar party, support the bylaws, believing them to be a quick way to lure back voters.

In the future, more dangdut singers, not only Inul Daratista and Dewi Persik, could be banned because of their erotic dancing, and more masseuses could be padlocked. Again, it should not be blamed on PKS cadres.

The writer is a journalist at The Jakarta Post. He can be reached at junaidi@thejakartapost.com

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