11.02.2004
Alliances to dominate Indon polls, says expert
BY NICK LEONG
PETALING JAYA: The Indonesian presidential election scheduled
on April 5 will be dominated by alliances between political parties and
personalities rather than issues, said the former director of the
Indonesian Project of the International Crises Group and expert on
Indonesian politics Prof Harold Crouch.
He said lack of a single dominant party or personality in the
Indonesian political landscape since 1999 meant alliances between parties
and individuals had become extremely important.
“Since no presidential candidate or party is likely to get an absolute
majority in the election, a lot of attention has been given to the
formation of alliances,” he said during a public lecture entitled Indonesia’s
Election: A New President in 2004? at Menara Star here
yesterday.
The lecture was presented by The Star and the Asian Center for
Media Studies.
Prof Crouch, who is a political science lecturer at the Australian
National University, said that unlike some countries, political
ideologies or affinities would not be the main factor when the candidates
or political parties looked for a partner.
“The determining factor is how popular or how many votes the partner
can bring to the candidate (as a running mate for a vice-president) or
the alliance,” he said.
Other factors that could influence the choice of running mates and
alliances, he said, included the background or credentials of the
candidates and their ethnicity.
“Therefore, a candidate who is perceived as lacking in Islamic
credentials will look for a partner with an Islamic background,” he
said.
He added that a candidate from Java would also want to look for a
running mate who is not of Javanese origin.
Prof Crouch said that although President Megawati Sukarnoputri was the
frontrunner to hold on to her job, the most popular candidate would not
necessarily become the president.
He said this was because Indonesia’s 142 million voters would be asked
to vote for a president again in September if there was no clear winner
in the first round of polling scheduled in April.
Prof Crouch said there were “seven or eight” candidates who could
become the republic’s next president.
Professor Crouch’s profile could be obtained from http://rspas.anu.edu.au/polsoc/psc-hac.html
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