Friday, March 29, 2024 | 08:58 WIB

The 2024 presidential election landscape taking shape: “Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?”

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Illustration: LEONARDO A. PUTONG

Prabowo: an anomaly? 

Gary Mauser in his book “Political Marketing: An Approach to Campaign Strategy” explains that political marketing basically aims to influence people’s behavior in a competitive situation. Therefore, it is not surprising that politicians try to spread their influence through various gimmicks in the hope of increasing their popularity and electability. 

Prabowo Subianto’s consistent result in the top three position for 2024 presidential candidacy poses an interesting question. If we refer to the four common gimmicks deployed by the candidates, Prabowo is not included as an active and massive user. 

Compared to Erick Tohir, Sandiaga Uno and Airlangga Hartarto, Prabowo’s activities and comments as defense minister and Gerindra Party chairman have not been widely disseminated. So why has he always excelled in every survey? What is Prabowo’s secret to maintaining his image and popularity? 

Gerindra Party Secretary General Ahmad Muzani does not deny that Prabowo rarely, if ever, deploys political gimmicks. According to him, so far Prabowo has prioritized his duties as defense minister over increasing his electability in polls. “Pak Prabowo is laser focused on bolstering Indonesia’s defense posture,” said Muzani. 

I personally think that Prabowo’s gimmick-free strategy is the right thing to do. Relying on gimmicks in a long-running contest will be exhausting. Gimmicks that are carried out continuously may result in market saturation. Let’s not forget that a gimmick is “engineered” to woo voters. In the long term, the gimmick must not clash with reality, otherwise it can be a backlash. 

Khairul Fahmi
Khairul Fahmi is co-founder of the Institute for Security and Strategic Studies (ISESS). He earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Airlangga University, Surabaya. His interest in defense and security issues grew stronger when he was in college. After graduating, he established a research group emphasizing in security and strategic issues with several of his university buddies in 2001. Fahmi also has a passion for journalism. He was a journalist with Elshinta Radio and managing editor for the online media lensIndonesia.com until in 2013, then he decided to focus on managing ISESS.

It is also worth noting the advice often conveyed by marketing practitioners. Sometimes, the best gimmick is to not do any gimmick at all. Because products with good quality and affordable pricing will in themselves able to effectively earn the trust of potential customers and become successful without having the need for gimmick to lure buyers. 

Indeed, Prabowo Subianto has been firmly etched in the public’s memory without him having to go to great lengths to deploy various political gimmicks. Undeniably, this is more or less a blessing from his participation in three presidential contests, in 2009, 2014 and 2019. His willingness to join President Joko Widodo’s cabinet has also strengthened his positive image as a politician who prioritizes service of the nation over electoral ambition. 

When Prabowo was appointed defense minister, I once commented that it was an opportunity as well as a challenge for Prabowo to implement his ideas and align them with President Jokowi’s agenda in building Indonesia’s strong defense capability. So, Prabowo has made the right choice by focusing on showing good performance in line with his role and duties. 

Evidently, in the past two years, various surveys have shown public satisfaction with Defense Ministry performance under Prabowo’s leadership. Prabowo is acknowledged for having solved quite a number of problems in the field of defense and security that were not given a priority in the past. For example, modernizing Indonesia’s armaments, manifesting total people’s defense through military reservists (Komcad), building strategic logistics reserve (CLS), and so forth. 

His trips to various countries to conduct defense diplomacy missions also convince the public that Prabowo has a broad network and ability to build international trust while defending and realizing Indonesia’s national interests, especially those related to defense capabilities. 

This, in my opinion, has erased public’s doubts on his commitment to the nation and its unity. As defense minister, Prabowo’s duty is to provide full support in the efforts to uphold sovereignty and maintain the integrity of the country. On the other hand, as a figure with a military background, Prabowo is clearly very familiar with the concept of “middle way,” someone who can transcend divisions that threaten national unity and break political deadlocks. 

However, it is worth noting that even though the “gimmick without gimmick” strategy has so far been quite successful in keeping his name at the top of the 2024 presidential candidacy “bourse,” Probowo still needs to heed and anticipate the possibility of public saturation and sliding electability trend. Moreover, it is still a long away to go before we know the definite candidates who will compete in the 2024 presidential election. There is still about a year left for political parties to determine which candidates with the highest chance of winning they will nominate. 

Citing Adam Harmes in his article “Political Marketing in Post-Conflict Elections: The Case of Iraq,” political marketing is not a concept to “sell” a political party or candidate to voters, but how the political party or candidate can provide solutions to actual concerns the state or society is facing. 

Simply put, Harmes understands that effective political marketing is done by politicians who intend to answer the voters’ big questions. In order for it to be successful, a politician needs to know the wants and needs of the market, and projects his political image accordingly.

In the run up to 2024 elections, Prabowo does not seem bothered with all kinds of complicated image engineering through political gimmicks. However, considering that the goal of political marketing is to build communication with the electorate, Prabowo should occasionally step out of the “gimmick without gimmick” strategy through periodic and interactive appearances before the public, at least through the media. 

If this can be carried out effectively, it is not difficult to imagine that Prabowo’s electability can be fully converted into election victory. “Most people don’t like complexity. They would prefer the world to be simple,” said Catherynne M Valente, an American author. It is as simple as that. (Khairul Fahmi )

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