Arientha Primanita & Ezra Sihite – In the next two years, regular people will see President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in their neighborhoods more often as he said he wants to increase the frequency of his field trips to visit the public.
Last Friday, Yudhoyono and first lady Ani Yudhoyono visited Tanjung Pasir village in Teluk Naga, Tengarang, Banten province. But political analysts saw the visit as an apparent attempt to divert public attention from the turmoil gripping his ruling Democratic Party.
A number of the ruling party's politicians have been involved in corruption cases and the party's popularity is struggling to survive the onslaught of severe pubic judgement.
Analysts said the party, which earned above 21 percent of public opinion in terms of popularity and electability in 2010, is now at 11 percent at best following the many indictments of its politicians.
State Secretary Sudi Silalahi said on Saturday that the president will conduct "many more down-to-earth village trips during the rest of his office term," which ends in October 2014.
The president's special staff for political communication, Daniel Sparringa, said that the palace is looking at problems that must be solved during the rest of Yudhoyono's term, therefore such field trips were necessary.
But he also confirmed that Yudhoyono was ending his term of office on a relaxed note because he was not burdened with the need to run for office again.
"The president is more relaxed now, and in the next two years there will be more trips of the kind. Perhaps he will even conduct two or three such trips every month," Sparringa said.
Firmansyah, a presidential adviser on economics, told journalists that the results of the president's field trips would be discussed during cabinet meetings because they represent actual needs of the people.
Firmansyah added that the president intended to create a rule in which all cabinet ministers, regardless of political party, would focus on their main duties instead of using their remaining time in office to work on behalf of their parties.
Political parties represented in the cabinet are part of the so-called Setgab, or Joint Secretariat, that is theoretically meant to support the government's policies, but in practice often attacks them.
Analysts predict that tough competition among the parties will occur on every front.
As of this year, the Setgab cannot be expected to produce anything substantial because the parties will need to rearrange their strategies to contest the parliamentary election in April 2014, analysts said.
"As of Jan. 1, 2013, the Setgab has actually fallen apart because every party pursues its own ambitions," said Sukardi Sinakit, a political analyst from Soegeng Sarjadi Syndicate.
On Saturday, news reports started that the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) was planning to run advertisements in various newspapers as of next week to attract potential candidates for the House of Representatives.
Fadli Zon, the vice chairman of Gerindra, said the party will recruit candidates to fill its legislative positions on the national and provincial levels and that the recruitment campaign would last a month.
The party aims to retain its current members of the House while recruiting more potential candidates from across the archipelago.
Democratic Party deputy secretary general Saan Mustofa said that political parties have lost their credibility and the public's trust because "they go to the people only to seek support for election," but after that, they abandon them.
That is the wrong approach that must no longer be applied, he argued, adding that the right thing to do was to function the same regardless of election. One way to do that is to nurture and recruit party members long before an election and not just for the sake of winning office, Saan said.
But that might be easier said than done, as analysts said that most political parties are incapable of providing a political education to their own members, let alone the public at large.