Rifqi Hasibuan

LX200120011



Image on the Political Advertising of Indonesian Electoral Champaign (Indonesian Case)

Since Indonesia enters a system of electoral democracy, politics has transformed itself from a state
centered politic to be a market centered politic. In this case, Indonesian people are the consumers of
the political product, political parties are the companies who offered some political products, and
the electoral system is the political market. As the ordinary kind of market, all products needs to
promote themselves to the consumers, so they will be sold. So in the political market, each political
party needs to promote themselves toward the constituents to persuade them to elect the political
parties.

Indonesian Political Market
In this case, political campaign in Indonesia, either for legislative elections or presidential election
always displays a large number of political campaigns either provides a persuasion to elect a certain
people or a certain political party. This small paper will try to show some type of political party
advertising to attract audiences interest to vote them. Nowadays, there are 12 political parties
participate in Indonesian general election in the national scope. The political parties will compete to
place their legislative candidate on the 250 chairs of Indonesian Legislative Assembly in the election
will be held on April 9
th
2014.
In this case, each political party will try to ensure people that they are the best choice. They will
show all of their capacity and capability to make innovations and improvement toward Indonesian
society. In this case, there are three kinds of Indonesian voters, those are: fanatic voters, rational
voters and floating voters. Fanatic voters usually have had any settled choice toward a certain
candidate and political party. She/he has had any close and permanent relation with a certain
candidate or political party, so theres only a little chance to influence their choice.
The second voters will elect for some candidates based on the programs offered by the candidates,
and by the track record of the candidates. By other words, if the candidates or political parties has a
good track record and offer some innovative programs relevant to the voters interest, the voter will
elect them. The third voters are those who dont have any standard to vote. They usually have no
reference to make any choice in an election process. These voters have a great potential to be
influenced. In fact, there are about 60% of total Indonesian voters (about 160 million voters) who
are grouped into the third kind of voters.
On another side, Indonesian voters can be classified into three type of ideological back ground. The
first are those who adopt nationalism as their ideological back ground. The second are those who
adopt Islamism as their ideology, and the third are those who adopt democracy as their ideology.
Beside all of those ideologies, most of Indonesian people adopt a moderate ideology, in which they
mix the ideology of Islamism, nationalism and democracy into a combination of point of view.
In this case, each political party compete in the general election will fight to attract the voters
interest to vote them. One of the medium they use to attract people attention and interest to vote
them is media advertising. There are so many advertising they display to persuade peoples interest.
They are displayed on the street banner, newspaper, radio, television and internet media.

Image of the Political Advertising
There are some type of political advertising can be observed in Indonesian electoral process. This
article will show three political parties which represent three different segments of voters. They are:
Party of Indonesian Democratic Struggle, Party of Working Group and Party of Justice and Welfare.
The first party represents the ideology of nationalism, and closely related to the voters from lower
class of economy. The second party represents the ideology of moderate democracy and closely
related to the middle class, while the third party represents the ideology of Islamism, and closely
related to the urban society.
Their relations to some any group of society influences their style of advertising. In this case, each
political party will try to maintain their primary voters from the specific segment of society. In other
side, each political party also will try to attract more voters which havent already enter to their
radar of election. The political advertising then will try to show people that the political parties are
compatible to the people interest. But of course, each political parties realize that they cant attract
all people to vote for them. By this consideration, each political party will try to identify themselves
in some specific image.
As mentioned above, three political parties have identified themselves to represent three segment
of Indonesian society. Furthermore, they also use their effort of representation to display their
political advertising. Here are some political images they display on the political advertising:
a. Party of Indonesian Democratic Struggle: Populist
The icon of populist has been adopted by Party of Indonesian Democratic Struggle, since the
party is well-known as a party which has a large voter from the lower class. It gives any
opportunity since the majority of Indonesian people come from the lower class, so the party
adopts the image that the party cares to the marginalized people.
b. Party of Working Group : Modern
The modern icon is practiced in the model of leadership and regeneration of this political
party. The Party of Working Group is one of political parties in Indonesia which doesnt
depend to any figure or persons. The party can exist without any dependence to a certain
leader. They have a settled support from Indonesian voters even the party has so many
times changed the leadership. It has a little differences with another political party in which
the change of leadership usually influence their power to attract voters.
c. Party of Justice and Welfare : Islamic Missionary
In case that Indonesia is a country which has the biggest Moslem population in the world,
the identity of Islam still has any influence toward Indonesian voter. In this case, Party of
Justice and Welfare has played their role to represent the Moslem society in Indonesia. One
of the most important role of the Moslem people is their duty to take some Islamic
missionary, called dakwah. To attract the vote of Islamic voters, this party identify
themselves to be a party of dakwah.
All of those identities above are always displayed by each political party in all of their advertising,
either in the street banner, newspaper, radio, televisions, and online media. Beside all, each political
party also states in their advertising that they care of all peoples problem.