BLACK CAMPAIGNS MAKE PEOPLE APETHETIC : OBSERVER

Jakarta, June 30 (ANTARA) - A political observer said finger pointing and black campaigning would only make people apethetic towards presidential elections this year.

"Revealing each other's shortcomings and finger pointing or black campaigning make people know the weakness of each candidate. As a result people will be apethetic towards national problems including the presidential election," Arbi Sanit from state University of Indonesia said here on Tuesday.

Arbi said the more people who became apethetic the bigger the number of abstainers would be.

"The number of abstainers will possibly increase and this will cause the number of voters for each candidate to also drop," he said.

Arbi said black campaigning would affect the people's opinions. "Any black campaign done by candidates' success teams will more or less affect public opinion and their choice," he said.

It could even also affect the choice of their loyal constituents, he added. "Black campaigns could distort democracy because what they reveal are not facts," he said.

Arbi said each presidential ticket in the election this year would lose votes from their loyal constituents. "This will be made worse because the fixed list of voters is still problematic," he said.
He said the management of the success teams was messed up, and not focussed on seeking victory for their candidates. They have even sought for their own records.

"Look at the SBY camp. It has 'Fox' which often makes blunders for SBY. They also have a bad track record but they are still being used. The JK and Mega camps also have people like them," he said.

Another political observer from the same university, Boni Hargens, meanwhile said that attacking each other was actually good so long as they were aimed at programs not sensitive issues.

As an example he referred to what Jusuf Kalla had done when revealing hindrance from then chief economic minister Boediono now a presidential candidate when proposing power plant development. He said this was good because it made people know about the problem.

He however opposed the raising of Boediono's wife's religion. This was not good regardless of which camp had done it, he said.

Regarding the success teams of the presidential candidates Hargens said that the team of SBY-Boediono was the weakest because it was controlled by the FOX political consultant.

"Just look at the behavior of Rizal Mallarangeng that had reduced SBY's electability rate. Their actions are too aggressive and uncontrollable causing blunders by the SBY-Boediono camp. Their accusations against Megawati and now Jusuf Kalla will cause the SBY-Boediono ticket's popularity to drop," he said.

He said he did not know why SBY has entrusted the Mallarangengs with the management of his campaign.