Kompas -
June 14, 2010
Jakarta –
The widespread use of political image projection, including in the recent
elections of regional heads, is further driving up the cost of competing in
elections. Political costs are being sapped to pay for survey institute
services and political consultants. This is the "big harvest" for
political consultants.
The
Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) for example, claims to have ensured the
victory of 17 governors in regional elections since 2005, or more than 50
percent of the governors elected throughout Indonesia. Currently the LSI is
handing two candidate governors contesting regional elections in 2010.
"We
want [to achieve] an even higher figure. Almost 90 percent of the clients
handled by LSI have won regional elections. Even though some have lost, it was
because they failed to meet the payments so there were programs that were not
run", said LSI Executive Director Denny JA late last week.
Aside from
acting as political consultants in the elections of political party chiefs,
political consultants have also acted as consultants for candidates in 244
regional elections.
Political
parties as well as candidates still make extensive use of their services for
various motives, from simply wishing to assess their popularity to seeking to
jack up their level of public recognition and electability among voters.
Pro-bono
Denny JA
admits to once helping a candidate in a regional election without payment
because the candidate was well known and liked by the public. The result was
that the candidate won the gubernatorial election. The LSI has also assisted
regional election candidates who are not well known, but have large amounts of
funds.
"One
other important proviso is that the candidate is not currently in jail.
[Although] if they are still only a suspect, we can still help them win",
said Denny.
Data
gathered by Kompas over the period of a week indicates that the fee for
hiring survey institute services to conduct an initial identification of a
candidate's level of public recognition and electability for a regency or
municipality election in Java is between 100-150 million rupiah (approx
US$10-15,000). But the price varies greatly depending on the number of
respondents surveyed, the margin of error as well as the size of the area and
geographical conditions.
For
regencies and municipalities outside of Java, the fee can swell by two to three
times that amount because of limited access to transportation.
The cost of
hiring a political consultant for a candidate taking part in a gubernatorial
election can be as high as 40 billion rupiah. And although this is a huge
amount of money to spend, the candidate could still lose. The size of the
consultancy fee therefore is not a guarantee of a candidate's victory.
The highest
profit levels belong to political consultants and can be as high as 50 percent
of the contract fee. This high profit level is because consultants can arrange
the programs and financing structure that is offered.
An
investigation by Kompas Research and Development (Litbang Kompas)
indicated a similar finding. The fee for a voter survey at the provincial level
stands at between 100-500 million rupiah. The cost of political mass media
advertising for a candidate governor is around 1-5 billion rupiah per month.
The fee for image projection for a candidate governor can reach 20 billion
rupiah.
Indo
Barometer Executive Director M. Qodari says that the consultancy service hiring
fee is very much dependent on the financial capacity of a candidate and the
package of programs offered by a particular political consultant or survey
institute. Above all, like other professional services, political consultancy
and survey institute fees vary greatly depending on the reputation of a given
firm.
Indonesian
Public Opinion Research Association (AROPI) Secretary General and Executive
Director of the National Survey Institute (LSN), Umar S. Bakry confirmed the
range of fees found by Litbang Kompas' research. In some case the cost
can be even higher.
According to
Bakry, currently it is mostly survey institutes that exist in Indonesia. In
addition to AROPI there is also the Indonesian Public Opinion Survey
Association (Persepi). Political consultants in Indonesia however are still
very rare and generally hold positions as political and mass communication
specialists. Other political consultancy institutes, aside from the LSI led by
Denny, include Fox Indonesia, one of the founders of which is Rizal
Mallarangeng, Charta Politika (Political Charter) headed by Bima Arya Sugiarto
and Pol Mark Indonesia founded by Eep Saefulloh Fatah.
Three
requirements
Denny JA
says that there at least three requirements that must be met by candidates if
they want to contest regional elections, namely being well known, liked and
having the funds. "If they don't have these three, they won't win. But if
they only meet two of the requirements, the possibility of winning still
exists", he said.
The Golkar
Party consistently makes use of political consultancy services. Golkar General
Chairperson Aburizal Bakrie has said that his party uses surveys to look at the
possibilities of what will occur in regional elections.
The closer a
survey is conducted to an election the higher the likelihood that the result
will be the same as the election itself. "So Golkar Party cadre who have a
high rank in a survey usually get a similar result in regional elections",
said Bakrie last week. (MZW/SIE/NWO)
[Translated
by James Balowski.]
