Letters: Golkar up, Dems down

These are comments on a survey by the Indonesian Survey Circle, which reveals that the Golkar Party will benefit at the expense of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party in the 2014 general election and possibly win.

Now, we all learned that our leader should not only be good but also radical in cleaning our corruption-plagued nation.

SBY must have equally realized he would have been better off using an iron fist policy to minimize corruption in his government. Somehow he still has two years to improve himself and get rid of the embarrassing endemic corruption in his government.

Political parties that were once promising, however, seem engrossed in preparing themselves for the 2014 election, without ever feeling guilty or embarrassed to practice what we call serangan fajar, or the distribution of envelopes filled with money intended for strategic recipients early on election day morning. In this way the political party with an unlimited amount of campaign funds will logically be the winning party.

The public’s logical question would be: How bribers intend to retrieve their bribes? Even worse for them, what if they lose the election? Either way they will have to retrieve the money by hook or by crook. The general public gets virtually nothing and misses part of the accumulated public funds!

This is what really happens in a corrupt nation. The big question is, when will we ever learn?

Moeljono Adikoesoemo
Jakarta

Yudhoyono’s popularity is at a low due to his indecisiveness in crucial domestic matters. This has affected his Democratic Party. His image in the international community will not help improve the party’s image.

People are looking for another party to support. Religious-based parties are not so popular, because of their tendency to radicalism and intolerance. Consequently, the Golkar Party, which is based on nationalism and has long-standing experience, is the best alternative.

However, the potential candidates touted by Golkar so far have not been too convincing. I am afraid that in 2014, people will have to choose the best of the worst.   

Soebagjo Soetadji
Jakarta