TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Candidates see new level of donations
Legal tender: Members of the â1,000 lawyers supporting Jokowi-JKâ group count donations they collected to support the presidential bid of Joko âJokowiâ Widodo and Jusuf Kalla
Change Size
Legal tender: Members of the â1,000 lawyers supporting Jokowi-JKâ group count donations they collected to support the presidential bid of Joko âJokowiâ Widodo and Jusuf Kalla. They have thrown their weight behind the ticket due to what the lawyers claimed was the formerâs proven record of upholding the rule of law. (Antara/Fanny Octavianus) (Antara/Fanny Octavianus)
L
span class="inline inline-none">Legal tender: Members of the '1,000 lawyers supporting Jokowi-JK' group count donations they collected to support the presidential bid of Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo and Jusuf Kalla. They have thrown their weight behind the ticket due to what the lawyers claimed was the former's proven record of upholding the rule of law. (Antara/Fanny Octavianus)
This year's presidential election marks the first time 26-year-old Ani Rusmita has made an individual donation to a campaign fund.
Ani, who works in mass media, said on Thursday that she donated Rp 50,000 to the Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) account of the campaign team of presidential hopeful Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo. 'My younger sister and my mother also donated,' she told The Jakarta Post.
This year's presidential election has seen an unprecedented display of public support in the form of individual donations to the campaign funds of both presidential candidates.
Jokowi's campaign team, for example, said on Thursday that it had pooled around Rp 8 billion (US$84,000) from more than 20,000 people as well as Rp 20 billion from companies since Sunday. The number of individual donors had increased from 5,000 people on Tuesday.
The campaign team's head treasurer, Didit Mehta Paryadi, said he had never before seen such a high level of public support for an election. 'In the past, most donations came from businessmen, but now the trend has shifted to common people,' he said. The donations, both individual and corporate, were pooled from three bank accounts, namely BRI, Bank Central Asia (BCA) and Bank Mandiri. Most individual donors sent their donations to BRI, Didit said.
According to Didit, the surge in public support has been caused by a variety of factors, such as TV stations broadcasting the relevant bank account details. 'Or it could also have spread by word of mouth,' he said.
Didit claimed that the campaign team had not conducted any promotional activities to encourage people to donate to the team.
However, he went on to urge anyone who wished to donate to do so via the three official bank accounts, rather than through donation boxes.
'The problem is that the boxes are not directly [coordinated by] us,' Didit said. 'If they [donors] know the people [who manage the donation boxes], then that's fine. But if not, they should be cautious.'
Aside from that, he also attributed the huge amount of public donations to Jokowi's image.
'He is not someone who is perceived as having a vast network that can easily raise money. Therefore, the public has become sympathetic about helping.'
Ani is one of those people who believes that Jokowi needs a helping hand from common people. 'I know Jokowi needs money for campaign purposes. Rather than using dirty money, it's better for him to use money from his supporters who genuinely hope he can become president,' she said.
Meanwhile, the campaign team of the Gerindra Party's presidential candidate, Prabowo Subianto, said that it had also received donations from the public. 'There has been
Rp 5 billion from the presidential candidate [Prabowo], Rp 4.8 billion from the vice-presidential candidate [Hatta Rajasa], Rp 200 million from companies and the rest from individuals who are supporters [of the candidate pair],' Prabowo'Hatta campaign team treasurer Thomas Djiwandono said when submitting the team's funding report on Tuesday.
Both presidential candidates have provided their initial campaign fund reports to the General Elections Commission (KPU).
The reports revealed that Jokowi and his running mate, Jusuf Kalla, received Rp 42 billion in donations, compared to Rp 10 billion received by Prabowo and his running mate, Hatta Rajasa.
The official campaign period for the presidential election is scheduled to run from June 4 until July 5. Debates between the presidential hopefuls will be held five times between June 8 and July 5.
Jokowi and Jusuf Kalla are nominated by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and its coalition of the NasDem Party, the National Awakening Party (PKB), the Hanura Party and the Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (PKPI).
