Indonesia’s Presidential Candidates in Economist View

Indonesia will face the new president election in 2009. But from the beginning 2008, we can see lots of commercials about parties in many media. You can see posters, banner, and TV commercials which’s shows the face of president candidates. All of those campaign ads make the people confuse about the candidates. You can see it from the slogans. Like Sutrino Bachir with his- “Hidup adalah Perbuatan” (Life is action) slogan. Of course that slogan is a good one. But is it a true vision of him and his party or just an easy remember slogan in order to increase their votes only?

We have to remember that Indonesia’s people need solutions for Indonesia’s economic and social problems. The race of Indonesia’s next president may have not even started, yet we are flooded with junky campaign advertisements from prospective candidates for the upcoming election. Our democracy is an open system, with more than 200 million people on the electoral rolls who do not understand themselves how to solve Indonesia’s mess. Reach high popularity by sweet promises but unrealistic niceties in plentiful advertisement, therefore is really the best strategy for a candidate to win an election.

We know that the world’s economy is presently standing on the edge of a global downturn. We are intimidated by economic threats which present challenges for every president candidate. No matter the country. Now, for Indonesia, is the candidate ready to embark upon economic problems the world is now facing? We know to fix the economy, economist has strong views, and they know who the best for the job is. Up till now economist can be categorized as a barred group who inclined to be disregarded in elections. Here in Indonesia, a enormous number of people have no knowledge of the subject and could not care less about the candidate’s views on economic issues.