Ahmad Heryawan & Dede Yusuf
Apr 14th, 2008, in News, by PatungIslamic parties on track for victory in the West Java election.
Results
Early results for the West Java governor’s election:
- Ahmad Heryawan and Dede Yusuf (Team “Hade”) – 39%
- Agum Gumelar and Numan Abdul Hakim – (Team “Aman”) – 34%
- Danny Setiawan and Iwan Sulanjana – (Team “Dai”) – 27%
The final result will be announced in one week.
Parties & Coalitions
Ahmad Heryawan and Dede Yusuf were supported by a coalition of the Justice Party (PKS) and the National Mandate Party (PAN).
Ahmad Heryawan.
Agum Gumelar and Numan Abdul Hakim were supported by a polyglot coalition including the Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the United Development Party (PPP), the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the Crescent Star Party (PBB).
Danny Setiawan, the incumbent governor, and Iwan Sulanjana were the nominees of Golkar and the president’s Democratic Party (PD) respectively. okezone
Interpretations – Young, Cleanskin, & Handsome
The result has come as a surprise, given that pre-election polls had put Governor Setiawan on track to win a second term. okezone
M Qodari, the director of Indo Barometer, says the Justice Party (Partai Keadilan Sejahtera (PKS)) has scored an important psychological victory as the 2009 national elections approach.
But he added that the West Java victory was in part due to the personal appeal of Dede Yusuf from PAN, who is a singer, and that at the national level the PKS had a shortage of popular, well-known figures. detik
Partai Amanat Nasional (PAN) leader Soetrisno Bachir says his team’s victory was proof that people wanted younger leaders who didn’t carry too much “baggage”. Both Ahmad Heryawan and Dede Yusuf are 41 years old, while the other candidates are in their fifties or sixties.
Golkar figure Rully Chaerul Azwar seemed to agree, explaining his side’s loss by saying people wanted fresh leaders.
Lembaga Survei Nasional (LSN) director Umar S Bakery said people’s voting patterns were not determined by ideology but by a desire for change. okezone
Said to be a political analyst, Fadjroel Rahman believes the PKS-PAN victory is almost seminal in Indonesian politics, breaking the grip of old guard cabals of bureaucrats and retired military men, and that women and young voters had played the biggest role in electing the winners. antara
Handsome fellow Dede Yusuf (Yusuf Macan Effendi).
Another commentator, Indria Samego, says the fact that Dede Yusuf is a handsome devil was the clinching factor. detik
14 Comments on “Ahmad Heryawan & Dede Yusuf”
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Young, Cleanskin, and Handsome sounds like a beauty contest rather than an election to choose a Governor and Deputy Governor!
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trane says:
The strong anti-corruption profile of PKS seems to explain a lot of their success. It appears that the ‘price’ for becoming a PKS candidate is lower than for either Golkar or PDI-P. Say if you are a PDI-P candidate and have spent hundreds of millions to get up in your party’s list, you will have more of a temptation to seek kickbacks as a return on your ‘investment’.
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So, is it a “seller’s” or “buyer’s” market? In a strict economic sense you would still want to be able to recoup any expenses outlayed in the process or it would be a negative value situation wouldn’t it?
It is not like the Governor or Deputy Governor of West Java are going to turn the post-term lives into speaking circuit cash like Bill Clinton. Or will they? Good ol’ Bill earned some USD 51 million last year from opening his mouth!
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jaka says:
I take the risk being called “tribalist”.
In the context of West Java, appearance has a high selling value. The stereotypic view to the sundanese is that they love everything that glitters ( handsome/pretty/clean appearance). Many Indonesian men avoid arranging the future with sundanese girls with this reason (even one of my sundanese friend: ‘I dont want to marry a sundanese girl; you know why’, and so married he a batak :-p ). Cost of living will be high!
What contradict is that the winner team known as “the poorest” among the candidates.
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All that glitters is not gold!
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Kang Kabayan says:
@jaka
The stereotypic view to the sundanese is that they love everything that glitters ( handsome/pretty/clean appearance).
As a Pituin Sunda Kang Kabayan feel inconvenience of your statement. Sundanese woman are known for their love to a humble person, such us Purbasari who felt in love with a monkey named Lutung Kasarung, and even beautiful Nyi Iteung falls in love with me.
(even one of my sundanese friend: ‘I dont want to marry a sundanese girl; you know why’, and so married he a batak :-p )
Are you kidding? Everybody knows you can not marry a Batak Woman until you carry on extravagant party that should be more luxurious than their parent’s wedding day.
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Oh, so sorry Kang Kabayan. I tried already to point out that it is stereotype (which mostly based on others perception through personal observations, not through legends). But believe me, this “evil news” is still around. I, too, don’t believe on this generalization.
By telling about my sundanese friend, I just want to give an example that even the stereotype plagued the ‘victims’ too. In fact, he married a batak girl (Mandailing) from a “reformed” family (dont know how to mention it correctly), so he didn’t have to pay a lot, just standard Jakartan wedding.
Me myself? Neither sundanese nor bataks. I dont have idea, what ethnicity I belong.
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violet says:
Well I think HADE win because of Dede Yusuf is a celebrity, the most famous candidate among those 5 other. Even my Chinese Christian friends vote for him, in only one reason, he’s (Dede Yusuf) is the only candidate they know. As simple as that ^_^. It has nothing to do with any political preferences.
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The determining factor is PKS cadres that very militant and loyal. The cadres had been built since high school and been maintained when college. PKS is the only one ideological party in Indonesia that has systematic political agenda. I expected that this Islamic party would gain more victory in the future. Please read my article in Bahasa about the PKS phenomenon.
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djoko says:
In a non-compulsory voting system like Indonesia, in the end it all comes out to who can drag their supporters to the polling booth on election day. Its worth pointing out that in the West Java elections, something like 37% of eligible voters didn’t take part. Thus its not really a great surprise then that (according to pre-election polls) the lowest ranked candidate could get up in the end.
Jun has a point in saying that the PKS cadres dedication and loyalty are big factors behind their success in West Java. Their ideology (in this case Islam, or if you believe what the party says in recent times ‘religious-nationalism’) however is only important insofar as it has constant meaning for them. The party (perhaps much like the communist party of old I have always thought) manages to have contact and provide support and some sense of direction for members and supporters day in and day out. Thus when the party calls on them for support in an election or even for non-party candidates, they are willing to get out of their seats and into polling booths. PDIP, PPP and other smaller parties are the worst offenders in this regard, and even Golkar is starting to loosen itself up a little bit as time goes on and most of its old guard are disappearing.
This is a system which needs to be adopted by other parties if they want to get anywhere. Instead we see most of them missing the point and talking crap about how it is ‘young leaders’ which are needed (only part of the problem). The larger parties are still stuck in the old New Order ‘floating mass’ paradigm of thinking, having little to do with their constituents until election time and as a result their ‘supporters’ don’t feel any great connection to them and in the end on polling days just could not be bothered getting up to vote.
If people want to be Islamic parties they can, if they want to be nationalist parties they can, if they want to be socialist parties they can. But if there’s one thing that Indonesian parties should be looking to learn from PKS it’s how to connect with and motivate supporters the way they do.
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What I want to say is that the future of our political contest belongs to cadre parties, not mass party. And I agree with your statement that the way PKS grow itself by cell system has similarity with communist party. One of its creeds that is able to trigger PKS cadre’s loyalty and motivation in doing political activities is sincerity. Any parties could adapt any ideologies, but they will find it difficult to gain success like PKS had achieved these days, except they have such creed either.
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Jun:
That was a good article, thanks. You make a very good point of the mix between celebrity voting and the steady mobilisation of voters by PKS to explain HADE’s success.
Djoko writes:
“This is a system which needs to be adopted by other parties if they want to get anywhere.”
“But if there’s one thing that Indonesian parties should be looking to learn from PKS it’s how to connect with and motivate supporters the way they do.”
I think you are absolutely right. As I see it, some of the other parties are trying – in vain – to gain ground on ‘Islamic values’, for instance Taufiq Kiemas’s new initiative in PDI-P. What they need to do is to enforce heavier sanctions for corruption among their candidates, and to continuously choose candidates who can mobilise many voters through their activities rather than simply choosing the candidate who in the short term supplies the most money for the party machine. They will surely lose resources in the short term, but it is the only way they can win the voters’ trust in the long term.
This in my view is a great achievement by PKS, for which they deserve credit: They have forced the other parties to better connect with voters. Giving them this credit does not, however, dismiss concerns I continue to hold about some aspects of their policy agenda.
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aris munandar says:
Mr. Heryawan, in my recommendation on PEMEKARAN KAB CIMIS to you that please as the governor do not forget to read the whole book of BUKU KAJIAN PEMEKARAN which is directing and suggesting that the deserving candidate of capital city of the in coming new kabupaten is Cijulang defeating other cities in the coverage area study in his evaluation.Cijulang is placed and skoring no 1 as the city to be suitable to be Capital City, why become other city was decided to be recomended bu The presidium????What is happening in the next if this professional recomendatin which is based on the long time spending study defeated by one night politically discussion by unprofessional group????Read again this Study book !!!!! We are not trying to distur or even make this struggling perjuangan fail but we are very much supporting this so that Pemekaran become reality and very quickly tercapai, but our reliable team (Commitee/presidium) never care about it even we are continuously screaming with our people about it.Think again about it before my honourably governor and the vice hand in your formal recomendation to the Parliament in JAKarta. Many things not walking in its rail in this process, many things to comment but not in this forum maybe , better we talk personally if time is available…….tqu…..
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Ass. I agree with the analysist, go..pks.