Jakarta – Overwhelmed and unpersuaded by the clutter of campaign ads, many city residents are still undecided about who they will choose in the upcoming general elections.
Rosvianti, a volunteer for a children's rights NGO in Kalimalang, East Jakarta, said she got confused after seeing so many posters promoting different candidates.
"I see hundreds of candidates' posters and banners every day on my commute to the office. I can recall some faces and names, but I don't want to vote for any of them because they only post slogans and pictures, nothing about their programs," Rosvianti told The Jakarta Post.
She advised political parties and legislative candidates to spend more energy meeting with their constituents rather than wasting money on mass publications.
"One political party has its headquarters right by my house, but not one of its council candidates has visited voters in the neighborhood," she said.
"I see most of the candidates have forgotten the public needs more than just a popular face. People want somebody they can trust. How can the public trust someone who appears on campaign posters but takes no real action?"
Dedy Suyatno, 40, a resident of Petogogan subdistrict in South Jakarta, expressed a similar view. "If a candidate says he wants to represent us, the residents, then he has to visit and talk with us regularly to find out what we actually need," Dedy told the Post.
On Monday, more than 1,000 houses in Petogogan were flooded in water that reached 40 to 60 centimeters after heavy downpours drenched the area.
Since the 1980s, floods have plagued Petogogan residents annually, but Dedy, who has been living in the area for more than 20 years, said not a single legislative candidate had come up with a concrete plan to tackle flooding in the city.
"Even several residents who are themselves running for a seat on the council haven't brought up the flood mitigation issue as part of their campaign agenda.
"Maybe they figure that overcoming the floods is a tough proposition," he said. Other residents who have met candidates said they were still uncertain whether they would cast their votes for those candidates or anyone else.
Azis, 29, a shopkeeper in Pancoran Mas, Depok, West Java, said, though he had met with four legislative candidates from different parties, he had trouble remembering any of their programs.
"Last month, those four candidates visited my neighborhood unit to introduce their programs. We haven't seen them since. No one knows where they are now or what they're doing," Azis said.
A political communications expert at the University of Indonesia, Dedy Nur Hidayat, said the use of conventional campaign strategies – banners, poster and the like – made it difficult for the candidates to grab people's attention amid the many candidates using the same methods.
Dedy said most candidates could not think outside the box and still pinned their hopes on mass publications to boost their images.
"It is true that a widely disseminated publication can help people to recognize them better, but that kind of publication won't automatically produce positive associations with their image, "In this 'chaotic' campaign period, people will easily get overwhelmed by the mountain of campaign materials, and either wind up confused or just start tuning all of it out," he said.
Dedy advised candidates to be more creative in how they put out their messages and start exploiting other strategies, like visiting constituents more often and teaming up with local residents who can arrange meet-and-greets or other events. "A good candidate is a candidate who can bring others on board to campaign for him," Dedy said. (hwa)