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Next week Jakarta will have it’s gubernatorial elections. Today I – and almost 13 million compatriots- will vote our new Dutch Parliament in office.
We’ve got politicians to come up with solutions for society’s problems. Sensible, feasible solutions. And to provide us with visions of a better future in which all of us have a fair share in the nation’s wealth. One would hope the debates in the campaigns would be on each one’s track record and each one’s vistas, respectively the significance and feasibility of each one’s plans for the city’s, country’s and it’s citizens’ future. Elections are about convincing and persuading the voters that one’s particular political program is in their best interest. Once in office our politicians’ duty is to serve the common wealth of the country rather that the interests of special groups or individuals.
That’s the theory. But here are two examples of actual bizarre common practice. From Indonesian practice. ( Though I might add some crazy Dutch flings if I thought anybody would be interested.)
Take this one.
Sunnis violently attacked Shiites in Sampang last August. Referring to this serious case of “My God is superior to your God”-intolerance, minister Minister Suryadharma Ali of Religious Affairs said that if only members of the Shia minority converted to Sunni Islam, their troubles would be over. If mister Suryadharma would be the minister of Justice he probably would advice victims of a gang rape to join the gang of John Kei.
And next this example from the current campaigns in Jakarta.
Next week will decide whether Fauzi Bowo or Jokowi will be Jakarta’s next governor. The incumbent governor and his running mate seem to have chosen a campaign-strategy based on bullying the electorate to do the right thing: “if you don’t vote for me, get lost!”. Betawi people who will not vote for fellow Betawi candidates should move to Solo. It’s like a waiter in a pub telling you, while you are pondering ordering a bottle of Champagne Dom Pérignon 1966, “Have a beer or beat it!”
What to do about these champions of the bizarre?
Discard them as hopeless cases? Or can their vulnerability still be cured? Is there any solace for their obvious moments of intellectual political inability? After all it’s clear that they at random moments suffer from fatal derailments in their brains.
Perhaps I discovered a solution.
This prolific blogger-author of many beautiful stories and elegant paragraphs wrote in this 100% a-political post this fascinating line: “Food added weight to flighty minds”. So Mr Suryadharma, Mr Fauzi Bowo and Mr Nachrowi Ramli, believe me, gain weight. Eat! Eat more. Eat a lot. Who knows it will automatically reset your mind and restore order, common sense and logic in the brains.
The aforementioned, apolitical author would like you to know how much she appreciates the comments. And looks forward to sharing food with the darling author of this esteemed blog. Soon. <3
@ Alia: I’ve been eating like crazy for many years and though it didn’t structure the chaos in my skull, food and drinks did help to brighten my days
. If my declaration of literary love, would lead to a dinner-date, I will celebrate it as my culinary zenith 
.
Many people now become apathetic in electoral events. We call them “golput” (white group). Hope you don’t have this in your country, Jerry .
@ Utomo: Apathy among the electorate is dangerous in a democracy. Stupidity among politicians doesn’t help either. It’s sad the political culture at the top doesn’t seem to care too much about better leadership and playing by rules of the game.
Lack of leadership is a European and Dutch problem too. Yet after a lot of pretty heated debates the turnout at the polls was almost 75% yesterday. So no apathy. However the political elite has lost a great deal of credibility over the last ten years. Seem to have lost touch with the grass-roots. That’s why our electorate problem is that the overwhelming majority of the electorate belongs to the “floating voters’ (who in huge numbers change their political preference from one political party to an other one from one election to the next. For instance Geert Wilders’ party PVV lost almost 40% now.
nara is racist. he poked the chinese sterotyping to ahok (“haiyaaah ahok”) during last night debate on metro tv. I’m glad ahok able kept his cool during the show. I’m pretty sure many chinese indonesians disgusted to foke-nara by now.
@ calvin: As long as all of us tend to identify people by the category they belong to (religion, class, cultural background, profession, nationality etc) I guess stereotyping is inevitable – and usually not very dysfunctional. Racism – categorizing people as ethnic superior and ethnic inferior- is fundamentally wrong and socially disrupting of course. If the guy really is a racist I’m too happy to announce he and the incumbent governor will loose the elections
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(All Chinese want to gamble and are addicted to betting, aren’t they? So want to bet on Fokowi’s win? Bottle of genuine Bordeaux wine? – Fyi: This was irony
. I can’t afford to loose a bottle of good Bordeaux.)
Indonesia is the country where I have been made the most and the most frequently aware of the precise color and shape of my eyes, hair, skin, facial features, etc. Not in the allegedly racist West, but here in Indonesia. There’s an insidious colorism here that is quite unsettling.
@ Mauricio: I’m afraid I also had a few experiences which appear to confirm a colour obsession. Till now I thought that apart from the statistical probability of racism that the phenomenon is pretty harmless. Sort of “beauty” misunderstanding: paler is better. Not unlike fellow Caucasians who try to get a tan in spring.
However the situation may be worse
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