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Yesterday morning was quiet... too quiet in this city of (insert over 9 million here). But there was a reason for the silence, though perhaps a celebration would have been more befitting the occasion: the second ever direct Presidential election.
For a country of 235-ish million, yesterday's election is rendered all that more impressive because it went off without a hitch. Though there were some sporadic voting irregularities and some problems with identification registration (you are meant to vote only in the district you are registered in, though they relaxed the rules a little this time around), there have not been any reported disruptions, violence or turbulence on the way to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's (affectionately called SBY here) reelection for a second 5-year term with over 60% of the vote (the winner needs 51% all out, or else there would have been a run-off election in September).
Having been a politics student, I find the set-up here extreme interesting. First off, this election featured the current president, the current vice president, and a past president (whom the first two used to work for in her administration). All three represent different parties, the winner being the newest party, with
the VP representing his Golkar (the former "dictator" party) and the past president, Megawati, following in her father's footsteps (the country's first president), taking the helm of her party. In fact, in terms of leadership in Megawati's party, it seems like they keep it all in the family; her daughter is set to take over from her (that is, if her brother doesn't do it ahead of time.)
I haven't really delved in to the fact that, outside of the incumbent, the other slates feature vice presidential candidates who are accused/suspected as mass human rights abusers in their former roles as army generals...
Anyway, the politics of this election, if they can be described, were really about who could get their face out there the most. I say this because, if you track election "promises" or "platforms", you really won't find much, if anything. Get this - during the live televised "debates", the candidates and the elections commission had an agreement not to criticize each other! In fact, most reviews of the debates all say the same thing: the politicians talk in circles, and they agree with each other! No one seemed to offer anything concrete, and seeing
the results of the election, it probably shouldn't be a surprise that SBY won without much of a fight - I guess literally, his only election strategy was "don't screw up." That, and maybe get a hot Indonesian music act to put together a track singing his praises and saturate the airwaves with it (since the election is over, they can probably use it for tourism now). Check it out at
... sorry I can't help with the translation...
Regardless of the politics though, pretty impressive to get this many people to vote in one of the poorest countries in Asia, and have it go so incredibly smoothly.
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Courtney
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Just wanted to let you know I read and enjoyed, thanks for the interesting perspective on Indonesian elections! I feel like I'm learning so much about Indonesia through this, I love it!