Indonesia goes to the polls

If you drive around Jakarta these days, you can't help but notice that every available fence, tree, lamppost or telephone pole is covered with colourful posters touting various candidates for the elections to the 550-seat Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat (DPR-their Parliament) on April 9 as well as for President in July.

In all, there are some forty parties contesting. I'm not sure how any one knows who is standing where. Unlike our elections where you only see the posters of candidates standing in any particular constituency, in Jakarta you see many many candidates vying in each area. I don't know if this means each voter has 40 candidates to choose from in each constituency.



It then makes sense that some people are really trying hard to ensure that you notice their campaign posters. Candidates present themselves well-groomed and dressed, sometimes with their party bosses such as Megawati Sukarnoputri, former President of Indonesia, in the background. Some former fashion models are now looking pious. Some tout the fact that they are somebody's daughter or son.

Some, like former general and Presidential candidate Wiranto, has a huge billboard of himself on a building in Blok M opposite the popular Pasaraya shopping mall. That's him wagging his finger at voters.

Another candidate, a woman called Marwah Daud Ibrahim running for the DPR, has a poster the size of a three-storey building as well as a billboard on the highway to the airport. You have to wonder how anyone funds campaigns like this...



One rather curious poster I found was for Sultan Hamengku Buwono X, the Sultan of Jogjakarta who is presenting himself as a candidate for President. The Sultan is one of the few royals left in Indonesia; Jogjakarta was given a special dispensation in otherwise republican Indonesia because of its peoples' steadfast resistance to the Dutch during the War of Independence. As a result, the Sultan could keep his royal position as well as be the Governor of Jogjakarta. Pak Sultan is very popular and some people have harboured hopes that he might stand for elections one day. I guess he's decided to give it a go. What I found odd however for a Sultan is that he is standing as a candidate for the National Republican Party.

There are some basic differences between our election system and Indonesia's. For one thing, they have a proportional representation system for their Parliament. This almost always means no one party can dominate and the government is always a coalition between several parties.

For another, they vote separately for their President. That election will take place in July with a possible run-off in September if there isn't a clear winner. Already there are campaign ads on TV as well as giant billboards by incumbent Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and one of his opponents Megawati. By the way, there are some sixteen people running for President at the moment.

Another major difference is that the voting age in Indonesia is 17. Which rather makes you wonder which country is supposed to be more advanced, us or them.

What is more, Indonesia has a system for its citizens overseas to vote. This is unsurprising given the number of Indonesians working in other countries. At the embassy in KL, there is a poster informing Indonesian citizens of their right to vote and how they should go about it.

Poster with logos of all the parties contesting in the 2009 Indonesian elections at the embassy in KL - photo courtesy of Nigel Skelchy.

In the Indonesian newspapers, there was a report that the Indonesian government had applied to the Malaysian government for them to set up polling booths all over the country to make it convenient for their citizens to vote. At first our Government balked at allowing these polling booths but has since reversed that decision. So on April 9, we will see some 900,000 eligible Indonesian voters queuing up all over Malaysia to vote in their elections. Again, you have to wonder which is the more advanced country.