Final Stage of Candidacy

Gun Gun Heryanto

· 7 minutes read

The beginning of August has been a busy time for political party elites. All are on political tours wrapped in various terms, from get-togethers and banquets to consolidation and others. The aim is political communication to thrash out agreements on presidential and vice-presidential candidacies. After the initial response, which was quite long and somewhat taxing, discussions at the end of the period for deciding candidacies have entered the decisive round, namely that of decision making!

Secret garden

Deciding on candidacies is not an easy process. It involves a lot of calculations, articulation of interests, winning strategies and also dominant power relations in the economy and politics. It is interesting to note that Michael Gallagher in Candidate Selection in Comparative Perspective: The Secret Garden of Politics (1998) said this process takes place in the “secret garden of politics”.

Many mysteries surround the question of candidacy, which often cannot be grasped by the senses of a wide audience, because the exchange takes place among and for the elite alone. Many political secrets reside in the dark.

Borrowing the term “dramaturgy theory” from Erving Goffman’s classic book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1956), the candidacy question is actually discussed backstage more than onstage. The stage, which includes settings, personal fronts and expressive equipment, is a show to convince and persuade the audience to get along together in the drama flow built by the elites.

The Joko “Jokowi” Widodo camp presented a stage of banquet diplomacy with the leaders of the six parties that have seats at the House of Representatives (DPR)] on Monday (23/7), followed by the elites of supporting parties, which do not have DPR seats, such as the PKPI, the PSI and Perindo, on Saturday (7/28), and also the secretaries general of all coalition partners and supporters on Tuesday (31/7).

On stage, the message communicated and the impression constructed is this: The Jokowi stronghold is solid in that the vice-presidential candidate will be determined by Jokowi and the coalition pillars and supporters are ready to agree. In addition to the narrative disclosed to the public, this solidity is supported by a relaxed atmosphere and by humor. Is that right? Not necessarily!

Along with different preferences for the candidacy, differing interests are also likely to emerge, but, of course, most of these differences are kept backstage, in the "secret garden". The differences lie in three things. First, the names of the vice-presidential candidates which are still being actively negotiated by various parties that are temporarily in the Jokowi camp.

Second, the point of political accommodation in dealing with the benefits of office for the parties.

Third, acceptance of a number of potential dynamic problems that are very likely to arise at the end of the candidacy process. The potential problems include the anticipation of a judicial review at the

Constitutional Court (MK) on the threshold of 20 percent of the DPR seats or 25 percent of national legitimate votes as a requirement for nominating presidential candidates. Another judicial review at the Constitutional Court pertains to the two-term limit on the offices of president and vice president, namely whether the limit only applies to consecutive terms or in general. Finally, there is some potential for disharmony among parties once Jokowi definitively discloses the name of his running mate.

Similarly, in the Prabowo Subianto camp, the onstage dramaturgy was indeed very neatly arranged, like a story flow full of joy and a bit of euphoria. The final round of communication began with encounters between party leaders that could challenge Jokowi\'s bid for reelection, starting with the arrival of Prabowo at the residence of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) on Jl. Mega Kuningan Timur in Jakarta on Tuesday (24/7). The elite meetings continued with the visit of the PAN chairperson to SBY\'s residence. The political stage was set with SBY\'s return visit to Prabowo\'s residence at Jl. Kertanegara, Jakarta, Monday (7/30).

Various dramaturgical tools were carefully prepared, from matching batik suite and tea parties to uplifting rhetoric and the exchange of praises and hopes, as well as prudence in communication management by not directly mentioning the name of the vice president to maintain a conducive atmosphere among the partners. Communication was also built with the PKS, which is in a state of uncertainty on its main aim to ask Prabowo for the vice-presidential slot.

The PKS\' ultimatum to Prabowo to address their main proposal became a test of the PKS’ bargaining power as the PKS saw its political clout diminished when the Democratic Party definitively declared a coalition with Gerindra. That means that, with or without the PKS, Prabowo could go on to become a challenger to Jokowi, because a collation of his own party with the Democrats meets the required seat number and vote quota for the presidential nomination.

Has Prabowo completed the mission to consolidate the ranks of Jokowi\'s challengers? Of course not! There are still a number of issues that must be dealt with. First, the name of the vice president is still contested between the Democratic Party, the PKS and the PAN. Each party is still playing hardball by claiming they have ample political capital. Many elites of the Democratic Party claim Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono (AHY) is best suited to be Prabowo\'s companion. Moreover, a public perception survey suggested that AHY had one of the highest electability ratings as a vice-presidential candidate and would draw millennial voters in the 2019 presidential election.

Meanwhile, the PKS claims cadre loyalty, a constituent base and solid party infrastructure as its bargaining power. While the Democratic Party is thought to have a stronger network than the PKS, the PKS considers itself more experienced in political cooperation with Gerindra, based on past elections like the 2014 presidential election and in the simultaneous regional elections.

Decisive power

This issue of candidacy is both sensitive and decisive. Bonnie N Field and Peter M Siavelis in Candidate Selection Procedures in Transitional Polities (2008) underline the significance of candidacy as an important function of political parties. If it fails to carry out this function, it stops being a political party. The party that is able to build tradition in the process of candidacy is a reflection of political institutionalization within it.

Candidacy is an indicator of the real locus of political party power. Whether it is still oligarchic, feudal and transactional or not. The candidacy issue is also a description of the elite circulation mechanism that takes place among parties. Candidacy is also a marker of what type of party is being run.

If we look at the experiences of the parties so far in the candidacy process, two dominant forces can be identified. The first is the strength of the main figure, who often yields effective veto power in a party. For example, the Democratic Party is very much determined by SBY, Gerindra by Prabowo, the PDI-P by Megawati Soekarnoputri and so on.

Second is the economic power in each camp. This is the residue of each candidacy process. The entry cost factor is often seen as a stumbling block, which eventually prompts the party elite to open transactions with "investors" who have business interests, while building a self-defense mechanism through power that can be controlled in the future. If this is the case, the political processes that are widely discussed by many people and reviewed by various media are actually nothing more than staged drama.

The final round of discussions on the candidacy is the real test of the political responsibility

of all parties!

(Gun Gun Heryanto, Executive Director of The Political Literacy Institute, Political Communication Lecturer of the Jakarta Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University, and Central Caretaker of HIPIIS)

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