Ronna Nirmala – Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo, who is running for a second term in office, is not worried that his decision to cut short his campaign activities from four to two days will make Jakartans shift their attention to other gubernatorial candidates.
The incumbent has been bombarding the city's streets and its airwaves with campaign posters and banners, radio jingles, and spots on television and in cinemas for two straight weeks ending today. His campaign team has created eight different campaign ads to convince voters that he is still the right man to lead the capital city.
But now this ad blitz in coming into question, with observers pointing out that the amount required for such a spending spree cannot be reconciled with Fauzi's declared campaign fund.
Ade Armando, a communications expert from the University of Indonesia said the rate for television ads was around Rp 30 million ($3,200) for 30 seconds. "The ad rates between national and local TV are definitely not the same, especially when they are aired during prime time," Ade said on Thursday.
Foke's ads have been aired 10 times a day throughout the campaign period, which means that he is spending around Rp 300 million per day, or Rp 4.2 billion throughout the two-week campaign period for a single TV station.
The ads have appeared on eight TV stations, for a total of around Rp 33.6 billion. Ade said this cost did not include the ads being run in cinemas and on radio stations, as well as the myriad banners and posters strung up throughout the city.
Other expenses include production costs for the ads, and the hiring of celebrities and public figures who were featured in the advertisements.
Some of the public figures who have been featured in Fauzi's campaign ads are former Jakarta governor Sutiyoso and dangdut musician Rhoma Irama. An anonymous source at an advertising told the Jakarta Globe that Fauzi had spent close to Rp 4 billion on producing the ads.
He hired renowned commercial director Ipang Wahid, who has also helmed political campaign ads in the past, to produce all eight of his avertisements.
Ipang was also hired to produce an ad for Jakarta's 485th anniversary this year. As a leading director, Ipang can command a fee of between Rp 100 million and Rp 125 million per day.
The source also said that Fauzi paid Rp 35 million for a 30-second advertisement slot during prime time and Rp 10 million during other times.
One day prior to the start of the campaign period, however, Fauzi's camp reported that it had only allocated Rp 27.65 billion for campaigning.
Apung, a researcher with Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW), said that the amount reported by the governor's camp was much less than the amount that was actually spent.
He said that ICW had data on the actual amount of funds that Fauzi spent on campaign ads, but added that the antigraft watchdog would not announce it until after Sunday, or one day after the campaign period ends. That is when the contenders have to report their campaign funds.
"Let's not focus too much on the data provided by the candidates because the amount could have been manipulated," Apung said. He also said that it was very easy to calculate the campaign spending and that the candidates could not mask the figures.
"We can ask the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission [KPI] for a summary of how many times the ads were run throughout the campaign period, and from that we can easily calculate the amount spent by the candidates," he said.
Ipang, who is also the one who conceived Fauzi's ads, said that the ideas and concepts of Foke's campaign ads were kept very simple.
"We just started with the achievements that Fauzi has made during his term as the Jakarta governor from 2007 to 2012," Ipang said, adding that he focused on the city administration's successful programs. "We just took it from there. Where the other candidates offer promises, we provide evidence."
Ipang also said that Fauzi had benefited from the controversial tag line "Jakarta Bebas Berkumis," or "A Mustache-Free Jakarta," touted by independent candidate Hendardji Soepandji in an apparent swipe at Fauzi and his trademark facial hair. "The more they used it, the more popular we got because only the No. 1 candidate has a mustache," he said.
The slogan and several variations were coined by Hendardji, who said the word "berkumis" was actually a contraction of " berantakan, kumuh, miskin," or "messy, dirty, poor."
Ipang said the advertisement production process took more than two months to complete. "The process was gradual, but we started it about three months ago," he said. "The campaign ads were distributed evenly to private television stations with the same [airing] frequency."
The Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPUD) allows gubernatorial candidates to air their campaign ads up to 10 times a day. "As for the broadcasting frequency, we went for the maximum according to the regulation," Ipang said.
ICW on Thursday reported all six Jakarta gubernatorial candidates to the city's polling watchdog for allegedly committing campaign violations by not disclosing where their funding came from. The group said that the four party-backed candidates committed the most violations.