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Andi's costly campaign fails to bring home victory
Widely seen as the frontrunner in the race to chair the Democratic Party, Andi Mallarangeng's defeat was surprisingly predictable, even for himself
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idely seen as the frontrunner in the race to chair the Democratic Party, Andi Mallarangeng's defeat was surprisingly predictable, even for himself.
Andi, the youth and sports minister and a close aide to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, was quick to blame his failure to build good rapport with the party's regional functionaries for his defeat to rivals Anas Urbaningrum and Marzuki Alie.
"This is a good lesson for me. I did not build close relations with provincial and regional branches that held decisive votes in the election," he said.
He picked up only 82 of the 531 votes, well behind Anas and Marzuki, who gained 236 and 209 votes respectively, during the first round of voting.
"I congratulate Anas and Marzuki and give thanks to my campaign team, supporters and the large public supporting my candidacy. The Democratic Party has shown fair play and this is a good political lesson to the public," he conceded.
Andi had been favored to win the top post in the ruling party when he announced his candidacy with full support from the President's youngest son, Edhie Baskoro, and launched a major political campaign with the help of political consultants Fox Indonesia, owned by his brother, Choel Mallarangeng, and several other public relations companies that helped the President win the 2009 presidential election.
He launched his political campaign by organizing a series of seminars, publishing books and financing conventional campaign media and advertisements, including pamphlets, banners and billboards erected along the Cipularang highway leading from Jakarta to the congress venue and along main streets in Bandung.
A day before the election, Andi also released a giant zeppelin carrying his portrait in an attempt to attract sympathy from the congress' participants.
Andi, who joined the party in 2003 after the Nationhood and Unity Democratic Party (PPDK) he and former regional autonomy minister Riyas Rasyid founded in 1998 was defeated in the 1999 general election, said he would be ready to help the eventual winner lead the party in the next five years.
"I will not accept any strategic post in the party because I am here to contend the party's top post. With this defeat, I will return to my current job as a presidential aide in the Cabinet," he said.
Emil SP Kulle, the chairman of the party's Enrekang, South Sulawesi, branch said that only four of 24 delegates from his home province voted for Andi "because we are not close to him".
Padjadjaran University political analyst Dede Mariana said the election was a precious lesson for Andi and other politicians that the politics of imaging was not effective in winning elections.
"*Andi* should learn from his own defeat that better communication with constituents, political concepts, track-record and leadership are decisive factors in developing his political career," he said.
