With Jambi’s gubernatorial election coming up, known as a Pilkada, a few weeks ago I went to see one of the candidate’s big rallies for announcing his running mate. As the first candidate to name his candidate for deputy governor, Hasan Basri Agus (popularly called HBA) drew quite a crowd to the stage and rally set up in Jambi City’s government office district. I was meeting some friends there who are on the candidate’s “Success Team,” i.e. main campaign volunteer team. Even though I didn’t quite know the way there, once I was headed in the general direction, swarms of truckloads of campaign t-shirt sporting locals converged on the correct road and I followed these horn honking and identically dressed supporters to the already assembled crowd. I couldn’t even get my bike close to the rally because of the crowd and I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to find my friends until I utilized my general stand-out characteristics as the tallest and whitest person in Jambi and just waited to be found.
The long list of speeches by long-winded political officials had already begun but the event was spiced up a bit by an MC that periodically chimed in with “Hidup HBA! Hidup HBA!” and a few semi-famous traditional singers/dancers brought in from Jakarta to entertain the crowds. This particular candidate appeared to enjoy a bit of a lead with support from most of the major political parties. One of those announcing its support was PKS, the largest Islamist party in Indonesia, and it was interesting to observe the small crowd of PKS party members with their banners waving. The women were some of the most conservatively dressed I have seen in Jambi; none were wearing the burqa or niqab that are only sparsely used in Indonesia, but they did follow the rules of covering all of their body except for their hands and face, evident by their wearing socks under their flip flops and wearing their jilbabs in a very conservative manner, not at all in the fancy, tighter fitting styles of my coworkers.
In regards to campaign clothing though, I was able to get my hands on a campaign t-shirt from the friend on HBA’s campaign committee. My friends now taunt me as a HBA supporter but I claim it is just a souvenir, not wanting to get mixed up in political favoritism.
But the important part of the rally: HBA’s candidacy speech and his announcement of running mate. I listened carefully and was not surprised to hear the normal string of campaign promises: better schools, more hospitals, empowerment for farmers, city development with better roads, electricity and infrastructure, and overall a province that will move forward and develop in a prosperous and safe way. In fact I think he used every single campaign promise he could make.
Now that a couple weeks have passed since the rally, it seems that HBA did himself a disservice by announcing a running mate who was relatively unknown to the public and consequentially fell from the leading position when two previous candidates for governor joined forces with one taking the deputy governor candidate position. By combining strengths with one candidate a former Bupati from Western Jambi Province and the other a former Bupati from Eastern Jambi Province they have covered a lot of loyalties. It will be interesting to see how the election pans out since this second pair announced their candidacy late and they received fewer political party endorsements. Nevertheless it doesn’t seem to be hurting their popularity and momentum may even be growing but only time will tell.
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