Although the 2017 Jakarta governor’s election is still far away, attacks against the incumbent and early frontrunner, Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, have already been launched by his rivals. As many expected, some of these attacks have been based on Ahok’s Chinese ethnicity, such as a tweet from Indonesia’s Ambassador to Japan Yusron Ihza Mahendra (brother to gubernatorial candidate Yusril Ihza Mahendra) who said that Ahok’s arrogance could lead to ethnic riots against the Chinese.
Political analysts have predicted that attacks on Ahok for his ethnicity and Christianity would come to play a major role in next year’s campaigns. However, if Ahok’s opponents think they can rely on such attacks to defeat him, they may be sorely mistaken.
According to the results of a new poll by survey group IndoStrategi, the majority of Jakartans say that racial issues will not affect the political choices of their fellow citizens.
“A total of approximately 29 percent of respondents believe that the people in Jakarta can be persuaded by racial issues, while 59 percent are opposed to this belief,” said IndoStrategi Executive Director Andar Nubowo on Tuesday as quoted by Kompas.
The survey was held from April 1 to 12 and involved 1,200 respondents from throughout the capital, 91% of whom are Muslims.
Furthermore, although 63.2% of respondents said they agreed with the Jakarta government being headed by a Muslim leader, when presented with the names of potential candidates for governor, the majority of respondents still chose Ahok.
Andar said that these results showed that religion did not have a significant impact on the voting choices of most Jakartans, who are more concerned with the experience and track record of their leader.
The founder of the Public Virtue Institute and Change.org Indonesia, Usman Hamid, echoed those thoughts by predicting that candidates who only use racial issues to attack their opponent, without putting forward a better political platform, will lose in the 2017 elections.
“My prediction is that it would not be effective (to campaign using racial issues). It is precisely those who use racial issues will receive a crushing defeat in the 2017 local elections, based on previous experience,” Usman said.
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