Sun, 07/12/2009 11:09 AM | Headlines
SBY's victory is a foregone conclusion. Everybody loves him. Older women are even crazy about his conservative hairstyle.
Well, at least one woman.
"My mother is a big fan of SBY. She parts my little son's hair on the *left* side so that it looks like SBY's hairstyle," my Acehnese friend complained.
She told me many Aceh residents chose SBY as they did not know it was actually JK who played the key role in brokering the peace agreement to end the decades-long conflict.
SBY also took the credit for fighting corruption, reforming the tax system and creating security and political stability, despite his failure in handling the Lapindo mudflow tragedy.
Above all, SBY is successful in generating a good public image, thanks to his relentless presence in the media. People must love him because they believe in what they saw on TV, even though my high school teacher once told me not to judge people by the way they look.
Anyway, SBY easily beat his two opponents, JK and MS.
Oh, I should start by saying SBY is actually Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the incumbent president. As for JK and MS, they are respectively Jusuf Kalla and Megawati Soekarnoputri, the other two presidential candidates.
Some of you might frown because people never called her MS, but Mega.
Mega's running mate was Prabowo Subianto, whose name was shortened to Pro, instead of Pra or PS, while Kalla's mate, Wiranto, was called Win instead of Wir.
Indonesians love acronyms and there are no rules when creating them.
The Indonesian term for presidential election is pemilihan presiden, shortened to pilpres. General election is pemilihan umum, but if you say pilum or pilu, no one will get it, because its official acronym is pemilu. The word pilu itself means very sad and if you add it with the "pe" prefix, then it can mean something that creates sorrow.
The acronym of pemilu was introduced during Suharto's regime. The creator must be very sad to learn how he manipulated the general elections in order to stay in power for more than 30 years.
After Suharto's fall, people enjoyed democracy and now they can even vote for legislators and leaders directly in local and national elections.
The recent election went well even though the losers and their supporters might feel pilu.
A friend of mine said that before he cast his ballot, his three-year-old daughter told him to vote for SBY.
"She said SBY was good. I was quite surprised. How could she say that?"
She must watch too much TV. During the campaign period, SBY's ads were extensively aired on television, depicting SBY as a perfect fatherly figure. He looked like a gentleman with great verbal skills; it seemed that every word that came out of his mouth was carefully chosen. People had the impression he was intelligent, patient and serious, as well as neat, clean and cool.
When I asked my domestic helper whom she voted for, she smiled broadly.
"It is a secret," she said.
Later on she admitted that she chose SBY, but added that actually it did not matter who became the president as long as the price of goods was low.
Asked why she voted for SBY, she shook her head. She could not think of a reason, but she finally told me why.
"You know. there is a song about him, isn't it?" she said.
It was the jingle of the Indomie's instant noodle TV commercial that was used in one of SBY's campaign ads.
When the jingle was first heard, many criticized SBY's campaign team, saying it was not creative and that it was a shame to use such a jingle. However, the proponents said it was a smart idea because the jingle was quite popular.
It is actually the product - made by the world's biggest instant noodle producer, which is popular. People like it despite it containing MSG, which is harmful to humans if consumed in large quantities.
During a presidential candidate debate, JK teased SBY about the use of the jingle.
"This means our import of wheat flour will remain high," he said, referring to the material used to make the instant noodles, which is imported from Australia and other countries.
"Maybe the one Pak JK has is made of 100 percent wheat flour. I eat the one made of cassava, sago, and sukun *breadfruit*," SBY said, smiling.
He was joking. Information on the Indomie package says it is made of flour.
It might just be a debate, an exchange of words. But the presidency is not a joke.
Now that SBY has won, he should fulfill the hope of his constituents, including my housemaid, who wishes for the lower price of rice.
He should also continue his past efforts to promote the diversification of healthy and affordable staple food, promoting cassava, sago and sukun as an alternative to rice.
Not the current instant noodle.
- T. Sima Gunawan
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