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Voters ask for job security, entertainment
Election rallies have provided their attendees with various opportunities, for some a chance to voice their concerns directly to top campaigners, and for others an occasion to entertain themselves
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Election rallies have provided their attendees with various opportunities, for some a chance to voice their concerns directly to top campaigners, and for others an occasion to entertain themselves.
Bandung resident Puspasari made full use of her encounter with Golkar Party leader Jusuf Kalla on Thursday to ask for a job.
“I am jobless. It’s very difficult for me to find a job even though all my family members voted for Golkar,” Puspasari told Vice President Kalla and other Golkar executives attending a rally at Bandung’s Gasibu Park.
Puspasari jokingly said she was a member of pejabat (government official), which also stands for pengangguran Jawa Barat (West Java jobless association).
She also asked Kalla to change the status of contract teachers to permanent government employees.
“My sister is still a contract teacher,” Puspasari told Kalla.
She was not the only rally attendant who had a rare chance to speak directly to Kalla.
Siti Hamidah, a worker in the textile company Kahatex, also asked Kalla to get rid of outsourcing, which she said worsened workers’ life.
“I am already a permanent worker, but I want to fight for my friends who work as contractors. I want the contract system to be removed. Could you do that for us Pak?” Siti asked Kalla.
Kalla said the party would take all the requests into consideration.
Unlike Puspasari and Hamidah, Sumardi, 35, attended the open campaign held by the National Mandate Party (PAN) in the South Sumatra capital of Palembang simply to enjoy a dangdut music performance, which he had wanted to do for quite a long time.
”It’s not every day we can watch artists from Jakarta for free like this,” Sumardi said.
He even brought his 8-year-old son to the campaign, despite a regulation banning minors from attending election rallies.
”I do not really care about the regulation as long as I and my son are happy. I could not leave him alone at home,” Sumardi said.
The PAN paraded several singers from Jakarta, including some from the AFI dangdut singing contest.
Despite Hindu’s Nyepi (Day of Silence) national public holiday, top party executives still held campaigns across the nation Thursday.
In Bandung, Golkar deputy chairman and House of Representatives Speaker Agung Laksono called on party supporters in West Java to help Golkar win the elections.
He said Golkar would be meaningless in the legislature if it failed to win the most votes in West Java, as about 20 percent of Golkar’s legislators in the current House were from the province.
”Without a victory in West Java, Golkar won’t be taken into consideration in the rest of Indonesia,” Kalla said.
In Brastagi, North Sumatra, former president and chairwoman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) Megawati Soekarnoputri also called on her supporters to fight for the party in the upcoming elections.
”Let’s fight this year to make up for our poor results in the 2004 elections,” Megawati said, as quoted by Antara.
In Jambi, the Islamic-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) once again hinted its possible coalition with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party.
The PKS president Tifatul Sembiring told reporters Yudhoyono met with the party’s chief patron board Tuesday to seek a coalition.
”It’s a brotherhood meeting,” Tifatul said.
PKS and the Democratic Party tied the knot to support Yudhoyono and Kalla in the 2004 presidential election run-off.
