// 02.20.2009 at 2:59 pm //

Indonesia braces itself for e-savvy elections

Official site: Prabowo Subianto on Facebook.

Prabowo Subianto, son-in-law of former Indonesian President Suharto who will run for the presidential election in July 2009, never forgets one item wherever he goes. It is not his wallet, but his Blackberry, which he uses not just for making calls, but for accessing Facebook.

Since late last year, Subianto has been highly dependent on his Blackberry. Every day, he monitors the growth of the number of his supporters and reads each message that has been sent to him via Facebook.

“Every time I read the messages I feel so close to Indonesian people. We are not longer limited by space and time,” says Subianto in an interview conducted by this writer.

Growing tribe

Subianto is not the only Indonesian to use Facebook. Many other Indonesian politicians are equally adept at it. To them, Facebook is a great method for networking in a different way to organise their campaigns.

The victory of US President Barack Obama last November has inspired all politicians around the world to use the Internet as a campaign tool. The profiles of all Indonesian presidential candidates can be found on Facebook.

For instance, there are 14 pages related to the Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, 6 pages to former president Megawati Sukarnoputri, and 2 pages to vice-president Jusuf Kalla.

However, it is difficult to know which one is the official page. It is possible that some were created by their fans. Many politicians don’t maintain their pages and usually ignore questions and comments in their network. Or, we can say that there is no interaction in that page.

Personal point

Subianto is one of several Indonesian politicians who maintains his own Facebook account. There are four pages related to Subianto on Facebook. But he can only be reached on one page, which is considered the official one.

Subianto has a team of seven people, who handle all his communications on Facebook. “I do not personally answer the questions that are submitted to me. Every morning, my staff gives me the printout of the questions and I give only the essence of the answers,” Subianto says.

Every evening, he also reads the posts on the page. “I open and read one by one the topics discussed, and if necessary, I make notes to be submitted to the communications team so they can post responses,” he adds.

The most active: Fadjroel Rahman's page has been declared as the most active Facebook account by an Indonesian politician.

Unlike Subianto, who has a communication team for his Facebook account, Fadjroel Rahman, another Indonesian politician, handles all the interaction on his page himself. “I do not have a Blackberry. I monitor my page through a laptop. My laptop is always on,” he explains.

Although he maintains it himself, Rahman’s Facebook account is active. The Jakarta Globe, one of the city’s English newspapers, has declared it the most active Facebook account by an Indonesian politician.

He uploads photos, posts interesting news items from the mass media, writes about hot political issues, and hold discussions with those in his network.

Another senior politician who is also a member of the parliament, Ferry Mursydan Baldan, also updates his Facebook page himself.

Baldan updates his status frequently, responds to comments, writes notes and also sends birthday wishes to his supporters through Facebook.

“I spend at least one hour every day to update my page. I monitor it in the morning before going to the office, in the evening, and at night before going bed,” he explains.

Login to poll time

Politicians like Subianto, Rahman and Baldan who have Facebook accounts are a new phenomenon in Indonesia. The trend started last year, and has much to do with the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections to be held later this year.

Elections are a big deal in Indonesia since the fall of the Suharto regime in May, 1998. Because elections are highly contested, the old way of using banners, posters and fliers is no longer a guarantee of reaching voters. Following Obama’s victory, Indonesian politicians now organise their campaigns using the Internet. They use blogs, social network sites such as Facebook, Multiply and Flickr to spread their ideas.

Is Facebook effective?

President Obama used Facebook extensively. However, many Indonesian politicians who use this social network have not considered the characteristics of the Internet users’ behaviour. The majority of the users in Indonesia belong to the middle class, and are well- educated and well-informed. They seek more intensive communication with politicians than what is offered through Facebook

Indonesian Internet marketing specialist Nukman Lutfie mentions on his blog that Internet is not merely technology, but a medium of communication. He says of Indonesian politicians, “They only join Facebook, upload their big pictures, then invite as many as people to their network (adding them as friends), but forget to build on the communication aspect.”

Maintain well: Ferry Mursydan Baldan maintains his Facebook account well.

The downside is also that despite having the highest growth of Facebook users in Southeast Asia at a growth rate of 645 per cent annually, the Indonesian community on Facebook is not large in comparison with the population. Only 831,000 Indonesians use Facebook, representing only 0.4 per cent of the 237 million populations.

So, is Facebook irrelevant in Indonesian politics? Not at all, says Rahman. “Although limited in numbers, Facebook users in Indonesia are a strategic class in society. They are the professionals and high-ranking figures in society. For example, I have a network with almost all Indonesian journalists. My writings on Facebook have been cited and discussed,” he says.

So, according to Rahman, politicians can use Facebook to build networks and open channels of communication well. It is not about the number of friends but strategic persons in the network who determine the dissemination of information to the public.

However, whether Subianto, Rahman, Baldan or other politicians will succeed in the elections remains to be seen.  The Internet is only one platform. Many other factors determine the success of a political campaign.

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// Tagged Case Studies, Elections, facebook, Indonesia, Social Networking