Andreas Harsono, Jakarta – 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 of the 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 July 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 September 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 military leaaders 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 speechwriter 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.