Jakarta Election and Indonesia in 2014: An Election Reflection

Synopsis

The first round of Jakarta gubernatorial election has just ended. There are several crucial issues in this stage, which can give us a preview of the 2014 election in Indonesia.

Commentary

On 11 July 2012, Jakarta residents voted for Jakarta’s Governor for the next five years. Based on the final vote tabulations by the Jakarta General Election Commission (KPUD Jakarta), the pair of Surakarta Mayor Joko Widodo (Jokowi) - Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (Ahok) finished at the first place, followed by the incumbent Fauzi Bowo (Foke) – Nachrowi Ramli (Nara) with about 1.8 million votes and 1.4 million votes subsequently. Yet, none of them was able to get the majority votes. Thus, they will compete in the runoff on 21 September 2012.

However, there are several lessons that we can learn from the first round, primarily in the light of Indonesian legislative and presidential election in 2014.

Weak party, more personal appeal

First, there is an indication that both in Jakarta and at the national level, political parties’ machinery remains ineffective in mobilizing voters. Although the Indonesian Democratic Party for Struggle (PDIP) and the Indonesia Greater Movement Party (Gerindra) claimed that their cadres were working very hard to mobilize voters, one could suggest that it is Jokowi’s low-profile character which, supported by extensive media coverage, was the key factor in his success. However, based on the exit poll, we cannot just ignore the role of the PDIP and Gerindra, whereby about 79 percent of voters for both parties voted for Jokowi - Ahok.

Nevertheless, weak party machinery was observable with other political party-backed candidates. 44.9 percent of the Democratic Party (PD) voters voted for other candidates, not for the pair of Foke-Nara. The most evident is the pair of Alex Noerdin - Nono Sampono, whereby only 19 percent of Golkar’s voters voted for them, while the rest of the party’s voters voted for other candidates.

In other words, personal appeal is still playing a great role in the success of candidates rather than strong party machinery or programmatic approach. It is related to the issue of party institutionalization. Declining party ID, weak party machinery, and public pragmatism have contributed toward the emergence of this characteristic.

National-level leadership: out of stock

The second issue related to the issue of the number of high-qualified potential leaders. In Jakarta elections, there are six pairs of candidates competing to become the Governor of Jakarta. Apart from the incumbent, all of the candidates are “new faces” to Jakarta residents.  They all have, arguably, the best qualities to lead a very dynamic province like Jakarta. The incumbent, Fauzi Bowo, is an experienced bureaucrat who served his entire career in Jakarta. The contenders, Joko Widodo is a candidate for World’s Best Mayor; Hidayat Nurwahid is a statesman who once led the National Consultative Assembly (MPR); Faisal Basri is a leading yet humble economist, well known for his ability to conceptualize ideas and translate them into practical solutions; Alex Noerdin is the Governor of South Sumatera who is able to carry out various monumental projects; and Hendardji Soepandji is a former military general with a good track record, well known for being clean and idealist. Those candidates are crème de la crème and have the potential to carry out their duties as the leader of Jakarta.

On the contrary, at the national level, Indonesia seems to be running out of stock of national leadership. Most of the candidates are “old faces” that already existed since the New Order era. Some of the names that appeared in some surveys ran in the previous presidential elections. Some others even have direct relations with previous or current leaders. As for new faces such as the State Owned Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan or Coordinating Minister for Politics, Legal, and Security Affairs Djoko Suyanto, despite appearing in the surveys, these leaders still have a low level of popularity amongst Indonesian. It would be best if Indonesia could follow the case of Jakarta, whereby the best talent and new faces are daring enough to compete in the election.

Election management: same old song

By reflecting on the Jakarta election, Indonesia is still coping with critical issues regarding election management quality. The issue of voter lists is the most important among others. Even for a major city like Jakarta, voter lists are still disorganized and have rendered many eligible voters unable to enjoy their constitutional rights. It is a continuing issue, which happens from one election to another both at the regional and national level.

The Jakarta election could be very good evaluation material for the National Election Commission (KPU) to overcome their shortcomings in the next two years, leading to a better election in 2014 than in 2009. The implementation of the electronic identification card (E-KTP) could be helpful to minimize voter lists issue in the next election.

Political marketing: going digital

The fourth issue is related with the utilization of social media in political campaign. From Jakarta election we can see an increasing trend of using the social media platforms as a contrivance for candidates to promote their programs, create a good image, or even using it to launch black campaign against the competitors. It happens particularly in the Twitter.

It also became the impetus for the birth of new actors in shaping the political discourse, which commonly called as celebritweet or celebtwit (celebrity on Twitter). To put it short, they are some accounts on Twitter who has high number of followers and acting as like a marketing buzzer. Some of them are personal accounts and others are pseudonym accounts, who managed by one or several people. Some of them are voluntarily basis; some others are professionally paid “social media consultants.”

Although it is too early to conclude that they significantly influenced the campaign, but the trend shows that it is crucial for candidates to run their campaign on the social media. It is relevant due to increasing number of social media and internet user in Indonesia. Therefore, in 2014, although the backbone of political marketing is still the traditional media outlets, but there is a tendency that social media will play a greater role in shaping the dynamics in a political campaign in Indonesia.

Yoes C. Kenawas is a Research Analyst at the IndonesiaProgramme of the S. Rajaratnam of International Studies, Singapore.