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ll the beautiful girls in the world are assembled in Indonesia this month for the Miss World pageant. After Sunday'€™s opening ceremony, it became clear that this event could go down as the most boring '€” or most sobering '€” international beauty contest ever held, depending on where you stand on the issue of beauty pageants.

In compliance with the demands of the conservative and at times hypocritical host nation, the Miss World organizers agreed to do away with the traditional swimsuit category. As if this was not enough of a concession to conservative Muslims, the government also decided to restrict all the activities to Bali, including the final, crowning moment on Sept. 28, which had originally been planned to take place in Jakarta.

It is just as well that they will stay in Bali. Radical Muslim groups would not dare to enter the predominantly Hindu island and disrupt the event.

We are all for more culture and all that stuff, but a beauty pageant without swimsuits is just not the same. Indonesia can now brag to be the first nation to host Miss World sans swimsuit. How boring is that?

May be we should instead concentrate on the other '€œbeauty contests'€ taking place in the country this past week. With the presidential election less than a year away, political parties are starting to parade their candidates for the public to judge and scrutinize.

The public is given the opportunity to help decide on the nominations of two political parties ahead of the July 2014 election: one through public and media pressures and another through a convention, of sorts.

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) is coming under a lot of pressure to nominate Jakarta Governor Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo. Even chair Megawati Soekarnoputri recognizes the growing demand for her to step aside and make way for Jokowi.

 At its national meeting in Jakarta, which ended on Sunday, the party refrained from formally nominating Jokowi, but Megawati made it known that the growing popularity of Jokowi was well noted and would be taken into consideration when she made her final decision.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono also held a beauty contest of his own as his Democratic Party struggles to find a credible candidate for 2014. So desperate is he to find someone he could sell to voters that he has enlisted 11 names for the party'€™s convention that begin this month. Since these are all middle-age men, no bikinis for them either, please.

The party has enlisted four independent surveyors who are tasked with deciding who is the most popular candidate in the eyes of voters and the winner will be nominated as its candidate next July.

We can forget most of the names, and focus on the two figures likely to clinch it: One is former Army chief of staff Gen. (ret) Pramono Edhie Wibowo '€” who is the younger brother of First Lady Ani Yudhoyono '€” the other is Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan.

This is a novel way of picking a candidate and the event may just win Democrats a few votes here and there. Having won the most votes in 2009, the party is now struggling in third or fourth place, according to various surveys, because of corruption scandals.

But whether it be Pramono or Gita, or whoever the party nominates, none will likely be as popular as Jokowi, or Gen. Prabowo Subianto from Gerindra, who most surveys put as the only other serious frontrunner.

The political candidates may not represent the beauty of Indonesia but its democracy and the nation'€™s ability to change their leaders, surely do.

This week, however, has also had its shares of tragic beast contests. The winner goes to the men who gunned down Chief Brig. Sukardi on Tuesday while he was escorting a convoy of trucks in Jakarta. Sukardi became the latest police officer shot dead.

Some of his chiefs stated that getting killed had become an occupational hazard for the police. But the frequency of the killings should raise questions about the lack of gun control. Should we not be looking at tightening the sales '€” legal or otherwise '€” of weapons and explosives? Too many cops have died unnecessarily.

The other winners of the beast contests are the parents who let their children drive cars. The case of the 13-year old son of pop idol Ahmad Dhani, who crashed his car and killed six people on Sunday morning, is a tragedy. But we all know that this kind of contempt for the traffic law goes on all the time. How many parents allow, or even encouraged, their underage children to drive motorcycles or cars? This calls for a review, not for more stringent traffic laws, but for more parental control and responsibility.

Some people may say this contempt for the law is the lifestyle of the rich and famous, but pretty soon more Indonesians will join the foray.

Big automakers like Toyota, Daihatsu and Honda this week launched low-cost cars aimed at lower- middle-class citizens. At prices below Rp 100 million (US$10,000), many parents now know what birthday present to get for their 13-year old child.

'€” Endy M. Bayuni