Actually, the presence of candidates from political party support was quite surprising and almost changed constellation and predictions of the political observers. It was interesting how the Democratic Party finally presented a pair of candidates who previously seemed to clash to win support of political parties, i.e Fauzi Bowo and Nachrowi Ramli as governor and vice governor candidates while one day before the closing, Fauzi Bowo was predicted to move forward with Adang Ruchyatna. This was also conveyed verbally by Anas Urbaningrum, chairman of the Democratic Party.
The question is, why did Fauzi Bowo in the end decide to pick Nachrowi Ramli as his vice governor candidate and sacrifice support from the Social Justice Party (PKS) and Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDIP) by refusing candidates proposed by those parties? And apparently, what happened to Fauzi Bowo has forced both PDIP and PKS who cancelled their coalition with the Democratic Party, to push their own best cadres to move forward as governor candidate.
Some sources has confirmed that Fauzi Bowo cancelled his proposal to one of PDIP or PKS’s member because both parties asked for 30 billion IDR as “dowry” and authority to elect certain heads of agencies which eventually rejected by Fauzi Bowo because the amount was too high.
Internal conflict also occurred within PDIP where support for Adang Ruchyatna to become candidate of Fauzi Bowo’s vice governor as mentioned by Taufik Kiemas had been denied by Megawati. Subsequently, supported by Prabowo and Gerindra Party, PDIP finally proposed Joko Widodo as governor candidate with Basuki Tjahaya Purnama (Popularly known as Ahok) as candidate for vice governor. What should be noted is that Ahok is a politician from Party of Functional Groups (Golkar) and also member of the House of Representative electoral commission II Bangka Belitung. On the same day, Ahok declared his resignation from Golkar and joined Gerindra which in turn support him to move forward to accompany Joko Widodo as candidate of vice governor.
This was not surprising since Joko Widodo is deemed successful in managing Solo and he personally is searching for someone who has spotless reputation and accustom to populist programs. Ahok is the person who has those qualities. But the pair is not without weakness i.e. they are not figures who have rooted in Jakarta. Their popularity and electability are purely depended on how they manage to get along with mass media and party machinery. PDIP themselves has solid party machinery in Jakarta but with recent condition in which competition between party machineries becoming fiercer, party machinery must be more solid in conducting campaign for their candidates.
Surprisingly, PKS finally proposed Hidayat Nur Wahid as governor candidate and Didik J Rachbini as vice governor. This action is opposed to the result of national work meeting and observer’s prediction where previously, PKS has unanimously support Triwisaksana for 2012 Jakarta Governor Election although it was not certain yet, whether he will come forward as governor or vice governor candidate. However, within seconds PKS totally changed its political options.
This decision might be caused by two factors, first PKS is way too confident that Fauzi Bowo and Democratic Party will choose them because they received big support from regional parliament (DPRD) and good grass-root militant cadres.
Secondly, there are factions within PKS which actually refuse to be considered as Fauzi Bowo’s cronies since his reputation has already damaged among the middle class and media opinion. These factions must struggle internally to push PKS promoting their own candidate because there is enough support from DPRD and referring to the 2007 Local Government General Election where they were able to counterbalance coalition of big parties. This is reasonable and possible to become a reality since none of the big parties such as PDIP, Democratic Party, Golkar and PKS coalesce. Each party is promoting their own candidates. Thus, this situation is advantageous for PKS.
Choosing Didik J Rachbini as candidate is also considered controversial but reasonable since he is considered as a qualified senior figure in economy, one of National Mandate Party (PAN) official and National Democratic Party (Nasdem) and will likely to receive support from intellectual and academics. Additionally, Didik J Rachbini is also quite popular within social media. In this case, chairman of PAN has declared their willingness to support Didik J Rachbini in the governor election along with Hidayat Nur Wahid since PAN themselves does not promote their own internal cadre, instead they support Fauzi Bowo.
PAN’s decision in particular has compromised their own cadre whose performance is deemed passable as member of Jakarta’s DPRD, i.e. Wanda Hamidah. She actually has formed her own campaign team, i.e. Jakarta Bergerak (Jakarta On The Move) and this team has been working hard to promote Wanda Hamidah as either Jakarta governor or vice governor in the upcoming Jakarta Local Government General Election. But the politically pragmatic decision was taken and passing off Wanda Hamidah and her team’s effort.
The other pair is Alex Nordin and Nono Sampono who receive support from coalition of Golkar, Development Unity Party (PPP) and Prosperous Peace Party (PDS) and 23 other parties with no seats in the Jakarta’s DPRD. Besides financial strength and his ability in attracting other party coalition, Alex Noerdin chooses Nono Sampono because he hope that this former Head of Indonesian’s National Search and Rescue Organization and Marine Lieutenant General will be able to support his leadership because Nono is considered well-informed regarding issues surrounding Jakarta and rumour has it that Artha Graha Group supports Nono Sampono financially.
Alex Noerdin and Joko Widodo in particular, their term as regional head in their region is not over yet. This is a crucial matter and could be put against them in the present nomination process. However, this issue will not grow into something big even when their team could not manage this issue well.
Further, it is interesting to observe two pairs of candidate from independent path who initially encountered some problems in the verification process of ID card support as stipulated by the Regional General Election Committee (KPUD). They are registered as Governor and Vice Governor candidates but they must pursue more support to fulfill the minimum support requirement as stipulated by the KPUD until April 9th 2012.
The pair, Hendardji-Ahmad Riza, is supported by officials and members of HIMPI and KNPI while Faisal Basri-Biem Benjamin are supported by a community organization, i.e. Pergerakan Indonesia (Indonesia Movement) and a group of business network led by Biem Benjamin. The pair, Hendardji-Ahmad Riza, surprised everyone by their ID card support in which only 14.000 of them disqualified. On the other hand, the pair has strong financial support. However, many are skeptical that this pair will go further even though they had successfully passed as governor and vice governor candidate in the present election.
The pair, Faisal Basri-Biem Benjamin is particularly interesting because their comprehensive understanding on issues surrounding Jakarta and flowing support from social media, prominent figures and activists as well as figures who have good credibility such as Teten masduki, Wimar Witoelar, Gunawan Muhammad, Sukardi Rinakit, Bondan Gunawan and the like.
Another interesting point to be noted is the political ideas promoted by Faisal Basri starting from philosophy underlies his nomination process (independent path) and how he visited residential areas to discuss his mission, vision and ideas of how to manage a city and try to educate people on politics especially about the danger of money politics and the practice of “empty” transaction as usually practiced by political parties.
Faisal Basri-Biem Benjamin unanimously refuses the practice of money politics and exchanging nine necessities for daily living (popularly known as sembako) with support in term of ID card support. They withdraw financial support from the societies (Crowd Funding) with good accountability because they are willing to be publicly audited in term of source of funding.
This policy really affects public perception and middle class which in turn give their massive support to this pair. Possibly, such phenomenon happened as a result of declining public trust, middle class in particular, toward the political parties. Supported by mass media which broadcast Faisal Basri-Biem Benjamin’s ideas concerning city management, this pair has strengthened their position as strong candidates and also influence other’s politic constellation and politic strategy.
However, this pair was plague with problems related to verification of support, ID card pooling and rumor about falsification of support which must be addressed. Faisal Basri-Biem Benjamin in particular greatly depends on credibility as candidate from individual path. Faisal Basri often emphasizes that his choosing individual path is a social movement to reverse transactional practice common in political party during the general election.
With regard to two rounds regional general election, theoretically, it will be difficult for pairs of candidate to win the battle in 1 round. Moreover, in the first round, the candidates will regard Fauzi Bowo as common enemy because he has a good grip on bureaucracy machine in Jakarta. In Jakarta Governor Election in particular, first round winner must obtain 50%+1 vote where such condition is deemed almost impossible in view of the above constellation.
However, the upcoming regional general election in Jakarta appears to be interesting because, like it or not, Fauzi Bowo and Faisal Basri are becoming poles for changes of support constellation as well as political strategy of those who involve in the upcoming regional general election. With such condition, political parties finally encouraged to promote their best cadre as candidate of Jakarta leader with their unique track record, popularity and capability. We are hopeful that negative political transaction will be minimized and emphasizing more in integrity, track record and capability of the candidates. This in turn will send political twit within society.
