Editorial: Unsteady Terrain of Indonesian Politics
Both Joko Widodo, who runs on the ticket of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and its three partners, and Prabowo Subianto, who represents a coalition of five parties, should know that all their alliances will contribute little to their fight for victory.
Legislative election results show Prabowo and his coalition have garnered a combined 48.5 percent of the votes, while Joko has around 40 percent. It's easy to get carried away by these figures as we are led to believe that these figures will change for the presidential election.
But the rift inside Golkar, caused by senior officials who preferred giving their support to Joko instead of following the party's official position of backing Prabowo, should show us that the politics involved in this type of direct election is fluid; anything can change. If political figures can so easily renege from committing to one candidate by jumping behind another, we can only imagine how quickly the general public could change its stance.
We believe it's high time to stop overestimating the significance of political parties. Both Jokowi and Prabowo have spent large amounts of time and energy on wooing politicians. They may even have handed out promises; a ministerial post or perhaps a large business project for a crony.
Both hopefuls should have learned from the mistakes of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who — despite huge public support — was so desperate to win over fellow politicians' favors, he ended giving away too many cabinet posts to those who didn't deserve them. The result was catastrophic; these ministers were incapable of doing their jobs properly and many ended up being accused of corruption.
It's time for Joko and Prabowo to pay heed to people who will vote for them and stop wooing politicians who may turn out to be a liability.
Posted by: "Sunny" <ambon@tele2.se>
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