Special Reports: Hopefuls fortunate as voters don't keep list

Wed, 07/01/2009 12:37 PM  |  National

Unlike in developed countries, the controversial track records of pre-sidential and vice presidential candidates are secondary to political charisma and piousness when it comes down to who voters will choose to lead the nation. The Jakarta Post digs into the issue as why voters are not more perturbed.

In the upscale residential compound of Bukit Cinere Indah, Depok, West Java, it was not Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's high-flying track record that lured voters, but his wise-looking demeanor that charmed housewives and teenage girls during the 2004 presidential election.

Of course it helped that among his rival was the tedious-looking Amien Rais.

Regardless, around 70 percent of the registered voters there were women, and during the counting, Yudhoyono's popularity soared.

This is just an example of irrationality and emotion trumping logic at the ballot box.

Factors stemming from ethnic diversity, a widespread lack of higher education and rising fanaticism have deeply ingrained voters from putting track records on their last list when selecting a candidate.

According to historian Asviwarman Adam from the Indonesian Institute of Science (LIPI), regardless of their background, people vote irrationally for religious, nationalist, aesthetic, ethnic and financial reasons.

These patterns, aside from money politics, have played out since the 1955 election when voters were strongly divided along religious and nationalist lines, he said.

Supporters of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the nation's biggest Islamic organization, fanatically voted for Islamic candidates with NU backgrounds, regardless of their past performances or political scandals.

Die-hard supporters of former president Soekarno are unlikely to vote for any other candidate other than Megawati Soekarnoputri and her descendents, according to Asviwarman.

"Aside from the nationalist and religious radicals, irrationality may also stem from physical appearances and vote buying. But this will only occur in the last minutes before the poll," he said.

"So it'll be no surprise if housewives tend to pick Yudhoyono because he is considered more handsome than the other candidates. There is also a possibility that voters will be lured by money given by campaign teams in exchange for the vote of a specific candidate, just hours before the election."

According to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), as of 2008, 36.4 percent of the country's 109.9 million population eligible to work are elementary school graduates and 19 percent are junior high school graduates.

This figure excludes housewives, students and pensioners.

The General Elections Commission (KPU) estimates that there are 176 million eligible voters registered for the 2009 presidential election.

Sociologist Imam B. Prasodjo, from the University of Indonesia, believes that it is unrealistic to expect voters to consider the track records of candidates, due to differences in culture, education levels and ideology.

"We cannot expect much from voters if their educational backgrounds are low.

"How many of them read newspapers and watch the news on TV? Very few," he said.

"If they did have access to this media, it would be difficult for them to digest the campaign speeches delivered by the candidates."

Voters ingrained with cultural stereotypes will tend to pick candidates based on their place of birth, who their parents are, and what kind of manners and ethnic traits they display, said Imam.

The Javanese, which are the largest ethnic in Indonesia, will tend to pick candidates from the same group.

In the presidential race, Jusuf Kalla is the only candidate from South Sulawesi, while rival Yudhoyono is from East Java and Megawati Soekarnoputri is from Yogyakarta.

As Javanese rule is so dominant, none of the vice presidential candidates are from outside Java.

Boediono was born in East Java, Wiranto in Yogyakarta and Prabowo Subianto in Jakarta.

On the ideological front, religious and political views are likely to be more influential than reason in this election.

With Muslims accounting for 85 percent of the population, none of the presidential and vice presidential candidates are Christians or Buddhists.

Religion has even become a sensitive issue manipulated to sideline rival candidates.

Rival candidates have questioned both Yudhoyono's and Boediono's Islamic faith when their wives do not wear a headscarf like those of Kalla's and Wiranto's.

On top of that, there have been recent rumors that Boediono's wife is a Catholic.

Eventually, proving the importance of religious appearances in the political sphere, both Yudhoyono and Boediono promptly clarified the issues and ordered their wives to occasionally wear headscarves to present an image of a good Muslim family.

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