Candidates competing for Regional Representative Council (DPD) seats must avoid using sectarian symbol to win voters, analysts have said.
The candidates vying for seats in Indonesia’s diverse capital must compete to win the hearts of eligible voters from a wide range of diverse cultural, political, ethnic and economic backgrounds, they said here Tuesday.
Cecep Hidayat, a political analyst for the University of Indonesia, said regional representative candidates rely on the support from one of three groups: the Betawi people, political parties or nongovernmental and other organizations.
“Regional representative candidates having blood or emotional links with the Betawi ethnic group are focusing their campaign on people of Betawi orign and those associated with certain political parties are approaching the latter’s supporters, while activists contending the DPD [Regional Representatives Council] election have garnered political support from nongovernmental and mass organizations,” he told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
He added that in big cities like Jakarta, showing off sectarian symbols is ineffective, and that candidates are expected to articulate the capital city’s unique problems and challenges and introduce specific programs to fix them.
Ikrar Nusa Bhakti, a political analyst from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) concurred, saying that regional representative candidates have even chances of winning and that the use of sectarian symbols would only alienate them. To ensure victory, candidates must introduce concrete programs which fight for the interest of the people in the capital city.
The Jakarta polling body has 40 registered candidates, all trying to lure the vote of more than 7 million eligible voters for just four seats.
Meanwhile, Fadholi El Munir, Chairman of the Betawi Brotherhood Forum (FBR), said his strategy to win a DPD seat is to ensure the support of Betawi people.
“We have asked all FBR members in the city to give bai’at [spiritual testimony] to my candidacy and some 800,000 FBR members are expected to give me their votes in the DPD election. If I get a seat I will channel the political aspirations of the Betawi people through the Regional Representatives Council (DPD),” he said. The Betawi Rembug organization has 104 affiliate organizations, including the FBR, the Forum for Betawi People (Forkabi) and the Betawi Movement (Gerak).
Among the regional representative candidates are party figures, including Deputy-Chairman of the City Council Dani Anwar, Chairman of the Democratic Party of Struggle’s (PDI Perjuangan) city council bloc Mohammad Nakoem, deputy speaker of the People Consultative Assembly A.M. Fatwa and Sunarto Muntako, a legislator of the Democratic Party at the House of Representatives.
Chairman of the Prosperous Justice Party Tifatul Sembiring said that his party has millions of young supporters in the city who would support Dani Anwar, a senior party figure in city politics.
“Contending the DPD elections could be a tour of duty for Pak Dani if he wins a seat at the DPD. We will support him,” Tifatul said.
In the 2004 election, the PKS won 18 seats or 24 percent of the total votes in Jakarta. (hwa)
