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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 JAKARTA 000568 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
AIDAC 
 
DEPT FOR EAP/MTS 
NSC FOR MORROW 
USAID FOR ANE/EAA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM ID
SUBJECT: Bangka Elections: Age, Guile, (and Money Politics) Propel 
Old School Politician past Young Reformer 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: Bangka Belitung Province very narrowly elected Eko 
Maulana governor on February 22.  The election was plagued by flawed 
voter lists and other problems, but logistically ran smoothly and 
peacefully.  Eko, an old school politician, aggressively used race 
and religion to attack his strongest opponent, an ethnic-Chinese 
Christian who made a name for himself fighting corruption and 
improving government services in southern Sumatra. He also used his 
position as local chair of a new, well-financed political movement 
from Jakarta known as Barindo (Barisan Indonesia, Indonesian Front) 
to, in the words of his opponents, "flaunt campaign rules and buy 
votes." Barindo's supporters call these criticisms sour grapes and 
promise the organization will play an increasingly large role in 
local and national elections. Given Eko's narrow win - less than 2 
percent - the negative campaign and money politics may well have 
been what pushed him over the top.  End Summary. 
 
Bangka-Belitung province (Babel) Elects a Governor 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
¶2. (U) Bangka-Belitung (Babel) is a small province comprised of a 
group of large islands off Sumatra's southeast coast. The islands' 
mines generate the majority of the world's publicly marketed tin 
and, until recently, the island's "Montok" pepper was the standard 
used by international spice traders to define the high-end of the 
pepper market. Babel is also a major producer of rubber and palm 
oil.  During the colonial period, the Dutch imported large numbers 
of Chinese to work the mines. Consequently, more than 25 percent of 
the island's population is ethnic Chinese, many of whom speak a 
Chinese dialect as their first language. 
 
¶3. (U) According to unofficial counts, Bangka Belitung province 
(Babel) narrowly elected Eko Maulana Ali (Eko) governor on February 
22 in peaceful elections with slightly more than 35 percent of the 
vote. He beat his closest opponent, Basuki Purnama (Ahok), by less 
than 2 percent. 
 
¶4. (U) The governor elect, Eko Maulana Ali, ran under the banner of 
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party and three 
Muslim parties: the Justice Welfare Party (PKS), the Crescent Star 
Party (PBB), and the National Mandate Party (PAN). Eko is a retired 
Navy Captain and former Regent of Bangka district. He spent a year 
in the United Kingdom studying hydrology and has participated in 
short-term training programs in Australia. His running mate, 
Syamsuddin Basari, was formerly the head of the legislature for 
Belitung regency. 
 
The Campaign: Money Politics, Race, and Religion 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
¶5. (SBU) Eko's campaign relied in part on his accomplishments as 
Regent.  According to journalists and other local figures, however, 
the heart of Eko's campaign strategy boiled down to race, religion, 
and money politics. 
 
"It's Better to Eat Pork than Vote for a Kaffir" 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
¶6. (SBU) Eko's strongest competitor was Basuki Tjahja Purnama 
(Ahok), an ethnic-Chinese, Protestant Christian reformer whose 
struggle to improve government services and fight against corruption 
as regent in a Belitung backwater led prestigious Tempo magazine to 
name him as one of 10 people who are "Changing Indonesia."  A 
transparency NGO has used Ahok's district as a model for clean 
government. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Early in the campaign, Eko openly told supporters that it 
was their responsibility to elect a Muslim as governor, and members 
of his campaign staff distributed pamphlets in mosques with the 
headline "It is Better to Eat Pork than Elect a Kaffir." In an 
organized campaign allegedly sponsored in part by Eko, Imams 
throughout the province preached against giving political power to 
non-Muslims, and several well-known ulamas jointly issued a fatwa 
forbidding Muslims to vote for a non-Muslim.  Throughout the 
campaign, the current governor, Hudarni Rani, who was also competing 
in the election, used Eko's strategy to his advantage by quietly 
encouraging the anti-Chinese rhetoric while publicly blaming Eko for 
playing the race and religion cards. 
 
¶8. (SBU) In some cases the attacks were not limited to simple 
rhetoric; numerous acts of intimidation against the Chinese and 
 
JAKARTA 00000568  002 OF 003 
 
 
Christian communities were reported.  In several areas graffiti 
threatened that Babel would become a "second Poso" if a "Chinese 
kaffir" were elected, and posters warned people that they would be 
beaten "black and blue" if they voted for a Chinese candidate.  Some 
of Ahok's leading supporters claimed that letters were tacked to 
their front door warning that their homes would be burned should 
Ahok win the election. 
 
Gus Dur Promotes Ethnic and Religious Harmony 
--------------------------------------------- 
¶9. (SBU) Against the backdrop of the widespread anti-Chinese 
campaign, former President and Muslim leader Abdurrahman Wahid (aka 
Gus Dur) came to Babel to endorse and campaign on behalf of the 
Christian candidate, Ahok.  Gus Dur is still widely respected in 
both the Muslim and Chinese communities in Babel. According to 
numerous observers, Gus Dur's speeches and media interviews 
advocating religious tolerance and interfaith harmony rapidly calmed 
the situation. Several Chinese figures confided to us that before 
Gus Dur came and quieted the situation, they had made contingency 
plans to flee Bangka on short notice. 
 
Barindo - Mass Movement or Money Politics? 
------------------------------------------ 
¶10. (SBU) Around the beginning of the election cycle, Eko organized 
a local chapter of Barindo (Barisan Indonesia), an entity that 
appears to be part political vehicle and part service organization. 
Barindo has chapters in 11 provinces, including Papua, Maluku, and 
Riau.  The Mayor of Pangkalpinang, a senior Barindo figure, told us 
that the organization was established in Jakarta and aims to 
transcend both party politics and government bureaucracy by reaching 
out directly to the people.  The Mayor said that the organization is 
run by several well-known retired generals in Jakarta and predicted 
that the organization would play a growing role in local and 
national elections. 
 
¶11. (SBU) In Babel, Barindo ran a very expensive operation. Before, 
during, and after the official campaign period, giant billboards 
with Eko's photo were hung throughout the province announcing that 
he was the local Barindo chairman. Other than the word "Barindo", 
the billboards were indistinguishable from the many political 
posters that had to be taken down at the end of the official 
campaign period.  The organization also doled out gifts and 
assistance in a way designed to maximize political support for Eko: 
Barindo busses (bearing Eko's image) distributed free medical care 
and medication to impoverished areas, its agents distributed free 
food to poor families, and Eko, ostensibly in his capacity as 
chairman, handed out gifts in the organization's name directly to 
Mosques and ulamas. 
 
¶12. (SBU) Barindo was widely criticized by observers as a scheme to 
skirt laws limiting the campaign period and banning money politics. 
Its supporters called those claims sour grapes and said Barindo was 
simply a charitable organization designed to "help people." 
 
Flawed voter lists, weak enforcement mar election 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
¶13. (SBU) Even though Babel is a relatively small and affluent 
province, the gubernatorial election was afflicted with some of the 
same problems that have plagued other recent elections: flawed voter 
registration lists, weak enforcement of election rules, and money 
politics.  Because the election returns of the top two candidates 
differed by less than two percent, several observers, including a 
prominent journalist, pointedly wondered if the combination of 
flawed lists and electoral dirty pool swung the election. 
 
¶14. (SBU) Voter Registration: Unlike voter registration programs in 
the U.S., draft voter lists here are compiled by local governments 
working with the election commission.  Once these two bodies have 
prepared a draft list, it is posted for several days so that voters 
can confirm that it is complete and correct.  In Babel the lists 
were posted without fanfare at local government offices for a total 
of three days.  None of the several dozen voters we spoke with in 
the capital understood the registration process or how the lists 
were prepared.  None reported seeing the draft registration lists. 
 
¶15. (SBU) According to the Public Election Commission (KPU), more 
than 700,000 of the province's 1 million residents were registered 
 
JAKARTA 00000568  003 OF 003 
 
 
to vote, an impossibly high percentage given Babel's demographics. 
In other provinces barely 50 percent of the population is eligible 
to vote.  Some of the 200,000 surplus voters were people who moved 
away from the province; others, however, were children, some as 
young as 12 years old, who were improperly registered. Several 
candidates formally requested the KPU review the voter list. 
Claiming implausibly that its hands were tied by election 
regulations, KPU declined to do so. 
 
¶16. (SBU) Despite the inflated voter rolls, numerous people who 
appeared otherwise qualified to vote were unable to do so because 
their names were not on the registration lists. While it is not 
clear how many voters may have been disenfranchised, Consulate 
officials met dozens at polling sites around the capital and heard 
reports from official poll monitors and other contacts that the 
problem was widespread throughout the province, particularly in 
ethnic Chinese communities. 
 
¶17. (SBU) The head of the Public Election Commission (KPU) 
attributed the flawed registration lists to two factors: unmotivated 
local officials charged with compiling the lists and poorly written 
election laws which strictly limit how long the lists may be posted 
before being finalized.  By contrast, the heads of several political 
campaigns blamed KPU for the errors because that body had done 
virtually nothing to educate voters or local officials about the 
registration process. KPU also, they said, refused to use its 
discretion to reopen the registration lists or delay the election 
until the errors could be corrected. 
 
¶18. (SBU) Enforcement of Regulations: each of the candidates' 
campaigns claimed to have reported rule violations to the official 
Election Observer Committee (PANWAS). None was satisfied with the 
outcome.  Several campaigns were particularly outraged by Barindo's 
campaign-like activities, particularly those taking place before and 
after the official campaign period, and were unsatisfied with 
PANWAS's refusal to take action on the grounds that "Barindo is not 
a political party." Religious leaders and two gubernatorial 
candidates also said that they complained to PANWAS about the overt 
use of race and religion by rival campaigns, but were unable to so 
much as elicit a public statement from PANWAS condemning the 
practice. 
 
Heffern