Suwardiman – The image presented by elite leaders and a political party appears to be the main consideration that will increasingly be taken into account by prospective voters in the 2009 general elections. The voting public no longer heeds the campaign promises, vision, mission and programs that are so often marketed during election campaigns, but rather a leader's character and the party's image that has been demonstrated up until now.

The results of a Kompas survey of 880 respondents in 10 large Indonesian cities indicates that voting for a particular political party has been of declining importance. 24.78 percent of respondents said that agreement with a political party's vision, mission, program and the promises made during election campaigns was major draw card in motivating them to vote for a particular political party in the 2004 elections. Now however, only 16.26 percent of respondents said these were the reasons for voting for a party.

Conversely, the 24.78 percent of respondents that said the image of elite leaders and a political party were the reason for voting for a particular party in the 2004 elections, has now grown to 37.9 percent. Accordingly, the track record of figures and political party activists has become an important component with a big influence on the voting public.

Nevertheless, the 2009 elections are also overshadowed by a strengthening of pragmatic reasons for using the right to vote. Not the program, being an important figure or the image of a political party. But simple pragmatic reasons restricted to using the right to vote, simply going along with the choices of family members or relatives or the surrounding environment.

In the previous elections, 11.8 percent of respondents said that they voted for these kinds of reasons. In the future, the increasing tendency to vote for pragmatic reasons appears to be becoming more tangible. Now, at least 24.93 percent of respondents said that these would be the reasons they would vote for a party in the 2009 elections.

New political parties

The participation of 38 national and six local political parties in the 2009 elections has also been greeted diversely by the public. Kurniansyah (48), a respondent from Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, said that he did not agree with there being too many parties taking part in the elections. "I worry instead, that too many political parties will confuse the public. After all, almost all of the party's visions and missions are uniform," said the farmer.

Kurniansyah's views represent 66.6 percent of respondents who doubt the capacity of new political parties to take up the people's aspirations.

Few respondents meanwhile are optimistic that the new political parties will be able to push through reforms that will improve the state of the nation. Only 26.5 percent of respondents are convinced that these new parties are capable of fighting for the wishes of their constituents.

"It's quite legitimate that many political parties will take part in the elections. Perhaps the emergence of new parties will bring reform to this nation", said Nurcahyono (29), a respondent from the East Java provincial capital of Surabaya. Nurcahyono's remark implies that the public's openness and appreciation is quite broad. This can be concluded from the 25.5 percent of respondents that stated they were interested in voting for one of the new political parties.

The real role of political parties

When the public is asked what the concrete role should be played by political parties, the response is real work, the impact of which is directly tangible. The majority of respondents mentioned things such as job opportunities, the issue of poverty, healthcare assistance and free education. As many as 40.7 percent of respondents hope that political parties will play a concrete role in areas of social benefit and the needs of the common person.

In addition to this, 21 percent of respondents expressed the view that the real role of political parties is to increase welfare through concrete solutions to improve the economy. The things that were mentioned in relation to this were, among others, solutions to address the rise in fuel prices and its associated impact of skyrocketing prices of basic commodities. Meanwhile, 17.6 percent of respondents expressed a hope that political parties will play a concrete role in improving party institutions and leadership.

It is natural that the public is demanding that the political parties fight for the above issues, because it is from these political institution that leaders are born. Political parties are also a mediator that connects the interests of the public with the state or government. They are also an intermediary that connects social forces and ideologies with official government institutions and links them with political actions in broader political society.

Samuel Huntington depicts the role of the political parties in promoting effective governance has having a causal relationship. He says that reform and modernisation of a system does not automatically create effective governance as long as there are disparities in social values and public morals as well as the capacity of political institutions to provide meaning and direction the public interest.

The public does not see the discourse about government policy in relation to important social issues as being of principle concern. This is because the public is more orientated towards the fulfilment of basic needs. As expressed by Afan Gaffar (The Transition of Indonesian Politics Towards Democracy, 1999), the majority of people have a low level of politicalisation. Political consciousness mong the grassroots such as poor families, farmers and workers is still low. For them, being actively involved in the political discourse about citizens' rights and obligations, human rights and the like is not an important priority.

The system of direct elections however – which has been running since the 2004 elections – and the holding of direct election of regional heads or pilkada has brought with it the positive impact of increasing collective political consciousness. The new system, which gives a vote to every individual, has been extremely important in opening up more space for political education in society.

The recruitment process in political leadership is increasingly understood as representing a primary function within the prevailing political system. This process of political recruitment is of course influenced by the distribution of power within political party institutions, the composition of the parliament and leadership decisions on strategic government positions.

The public's current dissatisfaction with the political parties and legislative members could well be an opportunity for the new political parties to win people's votes. This however is providing that these new political parties are actually able to provide something new and more significant than the parties that already exist. (Kompas Research and Development)

[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Voters increasingly ignoring political party pledges".]