September 19, 2024
JAKARTA – The apparent attempts by political parties to use the popularity of celebrities to win votes in the upcoming regional head elections is widely seen as evidence of their failure to find competitive and reliable candidates, an issue which will eventually harm democracy and jeopardize the public’s interests, an analyst has claimed.
Hadar Nafis Gumay, the executive director of elections watchdog Network for Democracy and Electoral Integrity (Netgrit), said political parties should have been able to identify problems in respective regions and prepared candidates capable of addressing those issues.
The parties, on the other hand, opted to “look for shortcuts” in winning the races by endorsing celebrities as regional head candidates despite their lack of experience and questionable capacity to bring about positive changes.
“This proves the political parties’ inability to prepare promising candidates,” Hadar said on Wednesday, adding that the parties must continue to control the celebrities’ performance in their leadership roles should they be elected as regional heads in the November elections.
Scores of public figures have registered to run in some key battlegrounds in Java, including singer Krisdayanti who is running for mayor of Batu, East Java, with the backing of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), and comedian Gilang Dirga who is running for the deputy regent of West Bandung in West Java under the joint ticket of the Democratic Party and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).
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The trend of using celebrity candidates can also be found in Central Java, where controversial celebrity Vicky Prasetyo and singer Vicky Shu are running as regional head hopefuls in Pemalang regency and Cilacap regency, respectively.
The former’s nomination was backed by the National Awakening party (PKB), while the latter was endorsed by the Gerindra Party, the NasDem Party and the United Development party (PPP).
The candidate hopefuls, however, are still waiting for the General Election Commission’s (KPU) announcement on Sept. 22 in order to be cleared to run as official candidates.
Despite the public figures’ popularity, Djayadi Hanan of pollster Lembaga Survei Indonesia (LSI) said challenges still loom over their candidacies, reflecting upon what little success celebrities had in February’s legislative elections.
“Usually, celebrities who win elections are those who already have a good track record as politicians and are no longer considered by the people as celebrities, […] such as the PDI-P’s actor-cum-politician Rano Karno,” he said, referring to the actor of the popular 1990s soap opera Si Doel Anak Sekolahan, who, as a native inhabitant of Greater Jakarta, was close to the hearts of Betawi people.
Rano is the nominee for Jakarta deputy governor in the Nov. 27 race with the PDI-P politician and Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung as his running mate.
The Pramono-Rano pair will face two rival candidate pairs in Jakarta, namely former West Java governor Ridwan Kamil and senior PKS politician Suswono, who are backed by the same coalition behind the victory of president-elect Prabowo Subianto, and the independent pair of former police general Dharma Pongrekun and academic Kun Wardana.
Read also: Campaign gets off to an early start in Jakarta gubernatorial race
The attempt to use celebrities in luring voters can also be seen in the appointment of comedian Lies Hartono, popularly known as Cak Lontong, as the campaign manager for the Pramono-Rano pair in Jakarta.
Rocker-turned-politician Once Mekel, a recent addition to the PDI-P, was also appointed to be the deputy head of the campaign team.
Meanwhile, in another key battleground of Banten, actor-cum-businessman Raffi Ahmad has been picked by Prabowo’s Gerindra Party to be the campaign manager of gubernatorial candidate pair Andra Soni and Achmad Dimyati Natakusumah. The pair will go up against former South Tangerang, Banten, mayor Airin Rachmi Diany and her running mate Ade Sumardi.
Political analyst Kennedy Muslim of the pollster Indikator Politik Indonesia warned that popularity does not automatically help a candidate’s electability.
“There are other factors that boost electability, such as their competence and their relationship to the people in the respective regions,” Kennedy said on Tuesday.
The PDI-P’s senior executive Hendrawan Supratikno told The Jakarta Post that the appointment of Cak Lontong as campaign manager was simply because it wanted to provide “entertaining politics” amid the rising political turmoil in the country, especially in Jakarta where elections are often polarizing.