Bangka Elections: Age, Guile, (and Money Politics) Propel

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 JAKARTA 000568

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SUBJECT: Bangka Elections: Age, Guile, (and Money Politics) Propel
Old School Politician past Young Reformer


1. (SBU) Summary: Bangka Belitung Province very narrowly elected Eko
Maulana governor on February 22. The election was plagued by flawed
voter lists and other problems, but logistically ran smoothly and
peacefully. Eko, an old school politician, aggressively used race
and religion to attack his strongest opponent, an ethnic-Chinese
Christian who made a name for himself fighting corruption and
improving government services in southern Sumatra. He also used his
position as local chair of a new, well-financed political movement
from Jakarta known as Barindo (Barisan Indonesia, Indonesian Front)
to, in the words of his opponents, "flaunt campaign rules and buy
votes." Barindo's supporters call these criticisms sour grapes and
promise the organization will play an increasingly large role in
local and national elections. Given Eko's narrow win - less than 2
percent - the negative campaign and money politics may well have
been what pushed him over the top. End Summary.

Bangka-Belitung province (Babel) Elects a Governor
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2. (U) Bangka-Belitung (Babel) is a small province comprised of a
group of large islands off Sumatra's southeast coast. The islands'
mines generate the majority of the world's publicly marketed tin
and, until recently, the island's "Montok" pepper was the standard
used by international spice traders to define the high-end of the
pepper market. Babel is also a major producer of rubber and palm
oil. During the colonial period, the Dutch imported large numbers
of Chinese to work the mines. Consequently, more than 25 percent of
the island's population is ethnic Chinese, many of whom speak a
Chinese dialect as their first language.


3. (U) According to unofficial counts, Bangka Belitung province
(Babel) narrowly elected Eko Maulana Ali (Eko) governor on February
22 in peaceful elections with slightly more than 35 percent of the
vote. He beat his closest opponent, Basuki Purnama (Ahok),by less
than 2 percent.


4. (U) The governor elect, Eko Maulana Ali, ran under the banner of
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party and three
Muslim parties: the Justice Welfare Party (PKS),the Crescent Star
Party (PBB),and the National Mandate Party (PAN). Eko is a retired
Navy Captain and former Regent of Bangka district. He spent a year
in the United Kingdom studying hydrology and has participated in
short-term training programs in Australia. His running mate,
Syamsuddin Basari, was formerly the head of the legislature for
Belitung regency.

The Campaign: Money Politics, Race, and Religion
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5. (SBU) Eko's campaign relied in part on his accomplishments as
Regent. According to journalists and other local figures, however,
the heart of Eko's campaign strategy boiled down to race, religion,
and money politics.

"It's Better to Eat Pork than Vote for a Kaffir"
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6. (SBU) Eko's strongest competitor was Basuki Tjahja Purnama
(Ahok),an ethnic-Chinese, Protestant Christian reformer whose
struggle to improve government services and fight against corruption
as regent in a Belitung backwater led prestigious Tempo magazine to
name him as one of 10 people who are "Changing Indonesia." A
transparency NGO has used Ahok's district as a model for clean
government.


7. (SBU) Early in the campaign, Eko openly told supporters that it
was their responsibility to elect a Muslim as governor, and members
of his campaign staff distributed pamphlets in mosques with the
headline "It is Better to Eat Pork than Elect a Kaffir." In an
organized campaign allegedly sponsored in part by Eko, Imams
throughout the province preached against giving political power to
non-Muslims, and several well-known ulamas jointly issued a fatwa
forbidding Muslims to vote for a non-Muslim. Throughout the
campaign, the current governor, Hudarni Rani, who was also competing
in the election, used Eko's strategy to his advantage by quietly
encouraging the anti-Chinese rhetoric while publicly blaming Eko for
playing the race and religion cards.


8. (SBU) In some cases the attacks were not limited to simple
rhetoric; numerous acts of intimidation against the Chinese and

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Christian communities were reported. In several areas graffiti
threatened that Babel would become a "second Poso" if a "Chinese
kaffir" were elected, and posters warned people that they would be
beaten "black and blue" if they voted for a Chinese candidate. Some
of Ahok's leading supporters claimed that letters were tacked to
their front door warning that their homes would be burned should
Ahok win the election.

Gus Dur Promotes Ethnic and Religious Harmony
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9. (SBU) Against the backdrop of the widespread anti-Chinese
campaign, former President and Muslim leader Abdurrahman Wahid (aka
Gus Dur) came to Babel to endorse and campaign on behalf of the
Christian candidate, Ahok. Gus Dur is still widely respected in
both the Muslim and Chinese communities in Babel. According to
numerous observers, Gus Dur's speeches and media interviews
advocating religious tolerance and interfaith harmony rapidly calmed
the situation. Several Chinese figures confided to us that before
Gus Dur came and quieted the situation, they had made contingency
plans to flee Bangka on short notice.

Barindo - Mass Movement or Money Politics?
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10. (SBU) Around the beginning of the election cycle, Eko organized
a local chapter of Barindo (Barisan Indonesia),an entity that
appears to be part political vehicle and part service organization.
Barindo has chapters in 11 provinces, including Papua, Maluku, and
Riau. The Mayor of Pangkalpinang, a senior Barindo figure, told us
that the organization was established in Jakarta and aims to
transcend both party politics and government bureaucracy by reaching
out directly to the people. The Mayor said that the organization is
run by several well-known retired generals in Jakarta and predicted
that the organization would play a growing role in local and
national elections.


11. (SBU) In Babel, Barindo ran a very expensive operation. Before,
during, and after the official campaign period, giant billboards
with Eko's photo were hung throughout the province announcing that
he was the local Barindo chairman. Other than the word "Barindo",
the billboards were indistinguishable from the many political
posters that had to be taken down at the end of the official
campaign period. The organization also doled out gifts and
assistance in a way designed to maximize political support for Eko:
Barindo busses (bearing Eko's image) distributed free medical care
and medication to impoverished areas, its agents distributed free
food to poor families, and Eko, ostensibly in his capacity as
chairman, handed out gifts in the organization's name directly to
Mosques and ulamas.


12. (SBU) Barindo was widely criticized by observers as a scheme to
skirt laws limiting the campaign period and banning money politics.
Its supporters called those claims sour grapes and said Barindo was
simply a charitable organization designed to "help people."

Flawed voter lists, weak enforcement mar election
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13. (SBU) Even though Babel is a relatively small and affluent
province, the gubernatorial election was afflicted with some of the
same problems that have plagued other recent elections: flawed voter
registration lists, weak enforcement of election rules, and money
politics. Because the election returns of the top two candidates
differed by less than two percent, several observers, including a
prominent journalist, pointedly wondered if the combination of
flawed lists and electoral dirty pool swung the election.


14. (SBU) Voter Registration: Unlike voter registration programs in
the U.S., draft voter lists here are compiled by local governments
working with the election commission. Once these two bodies have
prepared a draft list, it is posted for several days so that voters
can confirm that it is complete and correct. In Babel the lists
were posted without fanfare at local government offices for a total
of three days. None of the several dozen voters we spoke with in
the capital understood the registration process or how the lists
were prepared. None reported seeing the draft registration lists.


15. (SBU) According to the Public Election Commission (KPU),more
than 700,000 of the province's 1 million residents were registered

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to vote, an impossibly high percentage given Babel's demographics.
In other provinces barely 50 percent of the population is eligible
to vote. Some of the 200,000 surplus voters were people who moved
away from the province; others, however, were children, some as
young as 12 years old, who were improperly registered. Several
candidates formally requested the KPU review the voter list.
Claiming implausibly that its hands were tied by election
regulations, KPU declined to do so.


16. (SBU) Despite the inflated voter rolls, numerous people who
appeared otherwise qualified to vote were unable to do so because
their names were not on the registration lists. While it is not
clear how many voters may have been disenfranchised, Consulate
officials met dozens at polling sites around the capital and heard
reports from official poll monitors and other contacts that the
problem was widespread throughout the province, particularly in
ethnic Chinese communities.


17. (SBU) The head of the Public Election Commission (KPU)
attributed the flawed registration lists to two factors: unmotivated
local officials charged with compiling the lists and poorly written
election laws which strictly limit how long the lists may be posted
before being finalized. By contrast, the heads of several political
campaigns blamed KPU for the errors because that body had done
virtually nothing to educate voters or local officials about the
registration process. KPU also, they said, refused to use its
discretion to reopen the registration lists or delay the election
until the errors could be corrected.


18. (SBU) Enforcement of Regulations: each of the candidates'
campaigns claimed to have reported rule violations to the official
Election Observer Committee (PANWAS). None was satisfied with the
outcome. Several campaigns were particularly outraged by Barindo's
campaign-like activities, particularly those taking place before and
after the official campaign period, and were unsatisfied with
PANWAS's refusal to take action on the grounds that "Barindo is not
a political party." Religious leaders and two gubernatorial
candidates also said that they complained to PANWAS about the overt
use of race and religion by rival campaigns, but were unable to so
much as elicit a public statement from PANWAS condemning the
practice.

Heffern