Poll winner told to put political interests aside

The candidate winning the Riau Islands election for governor should leave political interests behind and focus on boosting investment, a business association chief says.

Preliminary results following the May 26 elections in the province show HM Sani and running mate Soeryo Respationo — running on the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) ticket — have garnered the most votes.

Head of the Bintan branch of the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo), Jamin Hidayat, said the pair was expected to back the implementation of the central government’s Free Trade Zone (FTZ) in Batam, Bintan and Karimun.

He said the winner should be able to leave behind political interests when they were inaugurated.

Currently, he said, the FTZ concept wasn’t being implemented as the business community had hoped.

“All the candidates had good proposals [during the campaign] to deal with the Riau Islands’ economy,”
he said.

“We just hope they will prioritize people’s interest and put their political interests behind,” said Jamin, who is also the general manager of PT Bintan Inti Industrial Estate (BIIE), Bintan’s first industrial zone.

Sani had promised to create clean governance to answer businesspeople’s complaints of widespread bureaucratic graft.

“In creating a clean and good administration, we will produce simple investment policies to ease investors who want to invest in Riau Islands,” Sani said.

Sani, who is also backed by several other parties including the People’s Conscience Party (Hanura), currently leads the race.

He is followed by Nyat Kadir-Zulbahri, running on the Democratic Party and Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) ticket, and Aida Ismeth-Eddy Wijaya, running on the Golkar Party ticket.