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INDONESIA: Ex-General Uses People's Music to Shore Up Lead
By Andreas Harsono
JAKARTA, Jul. 19 (IPS) - When Artine Utomo, the chief executive of
'Televisi Pendidikan Indonesia' or 'TPI' invited former general
Susilio
Bambang Yudhoyono to a show hosted by her TV station, little
did
she realise that his popularity would leave an impressionable
mark
on her.
''He strikes me as a man of substance. It was initially a
courtesy
call to thank TPI for covering the (first round) presidential election
fairly. I simply invited him to attend our 'dangdut' music contest
and
he agreed,'' Utomo, whose 'TPI' is one of the 11 TV stations in
the
capital city, told IPS.
Yudhoyono who has led since Jul. 5's historic direct vote for
Indonesia's president, remains the front-runner at 34 percent
with
80 percent of the ballots counted late last week. He is followed
by
President Megawati Sukarnoputri at 26 percent. The two are
widely
expected to face each other on Sep. 20 in a run-off election -
since
no one candidate got 50 percent of the popular vote.
The final first round results will be known on Jul. 26.
TPI's hugely popular singing contest, held every Tuesday night,
attracts 'dangdut' singers from all over the archipelago and
winners
usually get huge cash prizes and lucrative offers from recording
companies.
When Yudhoyono entered the contest venue with his wife and
bodyguards, he received a standing ovation from the hundreds
of
'dangdut' fans in the audience who chanted ''SBY...SBY...SBY'' -
referring to him by his nickname.
''He was surprised to receive the warm welcome,'' said Utomo,
who accompanied the Yudhoyonos along with her boss,
Indonesian
media tycoon Hary Tanoesoedibyo.
'Dangdut' - the music of the people - has often been used as a
tool of the powerful.
The beat-happy folk-pop blend of Indian, Arab and Malay music
has long been the sound of rural Indonesia.
Originally the music of the lower class, complete with bawdy
lyrics
and sexually suggestive dancing, 'dangdut' was cleaned up in
the
late 1970s and 1980s, with lyrics turned safely sweet.
But there is currently a huge revival in Indonesia's 'dangdut'
music
scene and the popular Inul Daratista has been responsible for
that.
Muslim clerics have derided her saying her gyrating dance
movements and skimpy costumes are indecent and immoral.
The Inul copy-cats, now, captivate their audiences and
politicians
have been quick to take advantage of that.
They often use 'dangdut' musicians to court the lower classes
and
appearances at 'dangdut' shows is one sure way of reaching the
masses.
And for Yudhoyono it is a race against time to grab and hold
the
attention of voters during the long stretch before the Sep. 20 run-
off.
He has to resort to every known way to get to the hearts and
minds
of the ordinary people - even if it means taking political
advantage of
their popular music.
Megawati remains his strong rival and, according to observers,
she has the power of overrunning him if he fails to come up with
innovative tactics.
According to Andre Burrell of the 'Australian Financial Review'
while on the surface it seems that Yudhoyono's vision, firm
leadership, strong intellect and clean image is up against the
''intellectually vacuous'' and indecisive Megawati, in reality,
however,
things are different.
''While it is tempting to depict the looming contest as such, it
would
be overly simplistic, because Yudhoyono and Megawati have
more
in common than either would want to admit,'' wrote Burrell in the
influential business daily.
During the election campaign, Megawati tried to portray herself
as
a leader who has brought stability back to Indonesia. Her
campaign
material always stressed that her government achieved an
economic growth of 3.5 percent since she took power three
years
ago.
Though she has not criticised Yudhoyono openly, some of her
advisers, however, have been supporting student activists in
their
campaign against the former general - hitting out at his military
career under the former Suharto regime, whose hallmark was
the
gross abuse of human rights.
According to John Miller of the New York-based East Timor
Action
Network, though Yudhoyono is pegged by the United States and
the
Western press as a ''reformer'', he is no challenge to the status
quo.
''In 1999, he was deputy commander of the Indonesian army
when
Indonesian troops levelled East Timor. And his main virtue is
that he
has not been indicted,'' said Miller in a media statement.
Miller also pointed out that Yudhoyono attended the Command
and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
''Because of this, he is unlikely to challenge the other
(Indonesian)
military prerogatives (who also received officer training in the
United
States),'' he said.
Yudhoyono's politically bad move was to formally align himself
with the Moon
Star Party of a hardline Muslim politician, Yusril Ihsa Mahendra,
in
the hope that this would boost his Islamic credentials.
Yusril, a former speech writer for Suharto, has been anything
but
zealous in carrying out one of his principal tasks - namely
fighting
corruption during his tenure as Megawati's justice minister. But it
is
Yusril's open support for Islamic shariah law that has put
Yudhoyono in bad light among the country's elites who have
been
pressing hard for secularism in Indonesia.
After Yusril came on board, false rumours began circulating in
the
capital, mainly through mobile phone text-messages, that the
presidential candidate would adopt shariah law if he was
elected.
If that was not enough, another rumour circulated was that his
wife
is a Christian.
These falsities hence pit him against the Christians and
Muslims,
resulting in the presidential hopeful losing popular support in
the
second half of the campaign.
But, then again, politics is not always about sober analysis. It
is
also about personal charisma and appeal. And Yudhoyono
knows
that very well.
For that reason, he had no qualms about reaching the masses
at the
'dangdut' show. (END/2004)
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