Khofifah, Mudjiono aim higher after raising support

Surabaya, NU Online
East Java gubernatorial hopeful Khofifah Indar Parawansa and her running mate Mudjiono hope to get out what they have put in to the upcoming second round of municipal elections. Coming off second best in the first round, they have spent all their energy and financial resources making final efforts to go one better this time around.

Expanding their networks to remote areas in the province, the pair have maintained links with the more than 4.2 million people who supported them in the first round. The candidates embarked upon an intensive road trip to persuade an additional 11.6 million citizens to exercise their voting rights on July 23.<>

Showing her education and talent, the former minister of women's empowerment, who won support from the nation's largest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), as well as some members of the United Development Party (PPP), has mined more political support from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), the National Awakening Party (PKB) as well as other small parties in the province.

Accompanying Khofifah on a pilgrimage to the grave of founding President Sukarno in Blitar recently, former President Megawati Soekarnoputri, chair of the PDI Perjuangan, gave her personal endorsement to Khofifah, apparently favoring of her presidential candidacy next year. She asked the provincial chapter and its almost 10 million supporters to cast their votes for the only woman governor candidate.

If PDI Perjuangan's politicians and supporters heed Megawati's advice, Khofifah and Mudjiono -- who were dominating in Jember, Banyuwangi, Probolinggo, Sidoarjo, Gresik and Malang in the first round -- can expected to gain dominance in Bojonegoro, Kediri, Blitar, Madiun, Mojokerto, Trenggalek, Surabaya, Pasuruan, and many other regencies in the second round.

In Surabay on Thursday, hundreds of PDI Perjuangan supporters held a gathering to declare their full support for the so-called Kaji, although rival candidate Soekarwo is claiming support from many PDI-P local elites.

Both NU functionaries and its affiliate women organization, Fattayat NU, have fought a battle to convince people that the pair are the most suitable to govern the province over the next five years.

Khofifah, who developed as a politician with the NU and PPP, graduated from the Airlangga University in 1991. Her candidacy as governor comes after holding a number political positions, both in the parliament and the government in the past.

The pair have introduced nothing new to the vision, mission and program pledges given in the first round. They face widespread skepticism among voters going into the second round.

In their recent meetings with numerous communities in the province, both gave political pledges and expressed their strong commitment to spurring the economic growth, coping with the unemployment rate, developing the agriculture sector, industry, traditional markets and small- and middle-scale enterprises. However, they failed to convey a clear strategy of how they intend to improve economic growth, alleviate poverty and improve the social welfare of the farmers and fishermen who constituted almost 80 percent of the province's 37 million population.

In Sidoarjo on Thursday, on the second leg of the three-day political campaign, Khofifah pledged to give more attention to the suspended payment of compensation to mudflow victims. But again she lacked a comprehensive solution to the fallout of the disaster, which devastated not only 15 villages, but swept through dozens of factories, destroyed the environment and continues to threaten residence of Surabaya with flash flooding during the upcoming rainy season.

She was also determined to build the province without depending heavily on the state budget, but declined to reveal her plan of how to do so. She also pledged to continue the war on corruption, but voiced no ideas of how to prevent public officials from committing the crime.

Mudjiono could not do much, since he had no prior experience in politics or government before his appointment as chief of staff of the Brawijawa Military Command in 2005. In this position until earlier this year, he was tasked with overseeing security in East Java.

Many people have expressed their suspicion that the Bakrie Family, owner of the energy company Lapindo Brantas Ltd. is backing the hopeful governor in order to avoid legal prosecution in the mudflow case.

Karsa relies on influential clerics to secure votes

Like their rival pair, governor-hopeful Soekarwo and his running mate Saifullah Yusuf took advantage of the three-month period following the first round of elections to seek political support in order to win the second round.

Setting their feet in one Islamic boarding school after another, Soekarwo -- who has shown himself to be a rich but true bureaucrat -- and Saifullah have won full political support from about 700 influential clerics who have been campaigning for them and who are expected to encourage their own students and followers to vote for the pair Tuesday.

Saifullah, former state minister for disadvantaged regions, has also been affective in winning endorsements as he has used the youth organization Ansor as a political engine and network to win the hearts of the people, especially those living in rural and remote areas.

Hundreds of influential clerics excluded from Nahdlatul Ulama's hierarchy have made use of the recent fasting month and the post-fast period to hold informal gatherings to campaign for the Karsa pair who have said they would rescue the people from their poverty, illiteracy, backwardness, the impact of disasters and would better their social life in the next five years.

With increasing support from the influential clerics, Soekarwo-Saifullah, who were nominated by the Democratic Party (PD) and National Mandate Party (PAN), have won 26 percent, or almost five million, of the total valid voters in the first round and are hoping to capture more than 50 percent of the votes Tuesday.

According to the 2008 regional administration law, governor hopefuls are required to win at least 30 percent of the total votes to win local (gubernatorial, regent, or municipal) elections.

Commencing the three-day indoor campaign in Malang on Wednesday, Soekawro reiterated that he had an obsession to introduce what he called "karwonomics" to improve the province's economy in the next five years.

In reference to USA's Reagenomics and Indonesia's Habibinomics, he pledged to increase the economy in rural areas where 65 percent of the province's population earn their livelihoods from the agriculture sector.

"If I am given a mandate to govern for the next five years, I will develop the rural economy which in fact has contributed 16.8 percent to the province's gross domestic product. I will also develop public health centers in all districts into small hospitals, improve the quality of education and change the local manpower offices into an unemployment service," he said.

Soekarwo, who has spent his career as a bureaucrat and his former number two position was as secretary to the province under Imam Utomo for two consecutive periods from 1998 to 2008, stressed the important role the government should play in the iron triangle, as a mediator between the "haves" and the "have-nots" and between employers and workers.

According to him, the government must be on the side of the majority of the people to prevent them from being exploited either by the "haves" and powerful capital owners as well as to ensure balance and harmony in society.

"If security and political stability are maintained, all ethnic and religious communities will live side by side in harmony and all religious-based schools will continue in peace," he was quoted by The Jakarta Post as saying.

Following the indoor political campaign, all participants were given basic commodity packages with the pictures of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his political part, PD.

Distributing humanitarian aid and giving sweet pledges to their audiences, both Soekarwo and Saifullah failed to spell out a comprehensive economic concept which would improve the province's economic growth which has been below the national rate following the 1997 economic crisis.

Many have questioned the so-called "karwonomics" which they have said was intangible since the two had no concrete programs to prop up the rural economy in order to enable the people to better their economic situations and afford costly health care and education.

Many others were wanting to know how the province's annual budget will be allocated and spent and what policies they would issue to address the province's social, economic, political and environmental problems.

Mudflow victims in Sidoarjo were still waiting to hear from both sets of candidates a comprehensive solution -- including justice -- to the disaster which has devastated their society and the environment since they believe it is completely unfair to leave the problem to the government.

The province's problems are not as simple as just saying the "haves" must stop exploiting the "have-nots", but include challenging and difficult issues such as all sides must allow the poor and the uneducated to develop themselves and that it's not just up to the government to handle the mudflow disaster.

Soekarwo is deeply concerned over the poor educational facilities and the widespread crackdown on sidewalk traders but he has no ideas or vision for a people-oriented economy which would seek alternative solutions to the poverty problem. (dar)