Rob Taylor, Jakarta – Indonesia's presidential election race has attracted a galaxy of stars, but most are made of military brass.
The campaign teams of the five candidates – who include two former generals and a third running as vice president – have recruited an astonishing 35 former generals as senior advisers.
In a recruitment drive which highlights the still-dominant role of the military in Indonesia's political life despite six years of democratic reforms dubbed reformasi, candidates are relying heavily on the advice of retired military officers.
The biggest contingent is in the team of frontrunner Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, himself a former three-star general, top security minister for President Megawati Sukarnoputri and one-time chief of staff of the Jakarta Regional Military Command. A supposed champion of reform who, surveys show, has 41 per cent voter support ahead of the July 5 poll, he has 16 generals on his team, including former armed forces chiefs Edy Sudrajat and Admiral Widodo AS.
In contrast, the struggling Megawati and her religious vice-presidential running mate have only three former two-star generals, while the self-labelled "locomotive of reform" Amien Rais has just one. Former armed forces chief Wiranto, under a cloud over human rights accusations on his watch in East Timor, has 12 former generals on his team, including fellow four-star commander Fachrul Razi, who is deputy chair of Wiranto's "Team Success".
Another, major-general (retired) Affandi, is team secretary, former lieutenant-general Suaidi Marrasabessy is in charge of planning and major-general Tulus Sihombeng is director of information.
The pro-Islamic party of current vice president Hamzah Haz has followed the military trend and recruited another three generals, including two former three-star officers.
"All these teams have basically the same structure as the military," prominent human rights activist Munir said. "If you look at Wiranto's team, he has exactly the same team as when he was the chief of the army. The military has never left Indonesian politics, they are just reshaping for democracy."
Megawati is keeping her campaign pitch simple: Choose the prettiest candidate. "Choose the most beautiful candidate on the ballot paper, the one with a mole on her right cheek," she said in the north Sumatran city of Medan. "It's easy to remember, right."
Megawati is the only female candidate campaigning for the elections, the first in which Indonesia's 210 million people will choose their leader directly. She is trailing her main rival, ex-security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, by about 30 percentage points in opinion polls.