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Leaving on a political plane

Just arrived: Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri (right) and her daughter Puan Maharani leave Batik Air’s Boeing B737-800 at Adisutjipto International Airport in Yogyakarta on March 25

Bagus BT Saragih and Margareth S. Aritonang (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Tue, April 8, 2014

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Leaving on a political plane

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span class="inline inline-center">Just arrived: Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri (right) and her daughter Puan Maharani leave Batik Air'€™s Boeing B737-800 at Adisutjipto International Airport in Yogyakarta on March 25. The PDI-P chartered the aircraft, emblazoned with the party'€™s slogan, '€œIndonesia Hebat'€ (Indonesia is Great), for the campaign period. JP/Hasyim Widhiarto

What is the best possible way to reach as many cities across the archipelago within a month? Fly. If you want to make it more efficient, eliminating time barriers given by scheduled commercial flights, use private or chartered planes. Of course, huge financial backing will go long way to facilitate this.

In Indonesia, however, large sums of money may be not an extraordinary challenge in the pursuit of shared power. Many businesspeople have been willing to finance political activities, particularly those of political groups with significant influence.

Hence, it might not be surprising to see some political parties, especially those with a band of tycoons in their camp, using private or chartered aircraft to support their campaign activities for the legislative election. The 21-day campaign period ended on Saturday.

Golkar Party'€™s leadership was able to visit many regions during the campaign period thanks to a chartered Fokker F100, as well as a helicopter for short trips around Java.

To optimize the use of the plane, the party also took along some 20 journalists to fill the empty seats in the back of the jet'€™s executive cabin, in a bid to help spread word of the party'€™s campaign activities led by chairman and presidential hopeful Aburizal Bakrie.

The plane can carry up to 42 passengers and is operated by PT Transwisata Prima Aviation, with a price-tag of Rp 70 million (US$6,190) per hour, according to a party official. It was Bosowa Corporation CEO Erwin Aksa, who is also party deputy secretary-general, who took care of the expense.

On April 1, the Dutch-made plane departed Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in East Jakarta on a five-day tour of five cities. It flew its passengers to Makassar in South Sulawesi, Lombok (West Nusa Tenggara), Kupang (East Nusa Tenggara), Bandung (West Java) and Surabaya (East Java).

'€œYou would find it very difficult to arrive in those cities on schedule within a short period of time using commercial flights. However, with a chartered plane, we get more freedom with our schedule, which
indeed sometimes changes at the last minute. More importantly, we can spare more time on resting,'€ a party official said.

For journalists, boarding the jet was also a useful way to meet up with top party figures. Aburizal himself often walked back from his executive compartment at the front to meet with reporters. In addition to formal interviews, he also had casual conversations and asked their opinion of the party'€™s campaign performance in the most recent city visited on his campaign trail.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chartered some aircraft, including a Boeing 737-800 NG operated by Batik Air, a subsidiary of Indonesia'€™s largest airline group, Lion Air.

The rented aircraft was painted with PDI-P'€™s campaign tagline, '€œIndonesia Hebat'€ (Indonesia is Great), across a red-and-white background, which are also the party'€™s distinctive colors.

The aircraft kicked off its campaign tour by flying to Surabaya, East Java, on March 16, carrying PDI-P executives, including chairperson Megawati Soekarnoputri and her daughter Puan Maharani, who chairs the party'€™s faction at the House of Representatives.

While Megawati and her aides filled the front row of executive seats on the plane, the PDI-P reserved the back rows for journalists from various media companies invited to cover the party'€™s campaign events in Surabaya as well as other cities, including Bali and Yogyakarta.

A much smaller aircraft was provided for Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo, the Jakarta governor who has been named the party'€™s presidential candidate. Jokowi, who often campaigned separately from Megawati, took the seven-seater Piaggio P180 Avanti II. The plane was reportedly rented at Rp 40 million per hour.

The Italian-made turboprop, which belongs to PT ASI Pudjiastuti Aviation, aka Susi Air, flew Jokowi on his tour of many cities, including Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan, Malang and Banyuwangi in East Java, as well as Sorong in West Papua and Jayapura in Papua.

The Nasdem Party, the only newcomer in this year'€™s election, used three aircraft. One of them was a British-made BAe 146 belonging to party chairman and founder Surya Paloh. Made in 1984, the plane used to serve British Queen Elizabeth II as part of the UK Royal Air Force fleet.

Other planes used by Nasdem were a small Brazilian-made Embraer Phenom 100 and a mid-size Embreaer Lineage 1000.

The Gerindra Party, meanwhile, utilized aircraft and helicopters owned by chairman and presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto. One of them is a 13-seater Embraer Legacy 600 business jet. '€œ[Prabowo] uses his private aircraft so we save a lot of money,'€ party executive Fadli Zon said.

Helicopters and planes were also used by the presidential and vice presidential candidates of the Hanura Party, Wiranto and Hary Tanoesoedibjo. One of them was a turboprop ATR 42-500.

The Democratic Party chairman, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, meanwhile, flew using state-chartered Garuda Indonesia B737-800 NG to visit cities for campaign events as one of his facilities as the head of state.

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