WOMEN MOB JOKO, PRABOWO FOR SELFIES
Obtaining support on social media is vital for presidential candidates
TEARS stream down Lilis Hastirini’s mascarasmudged face after she waited hours to snap a selfie with Indonesia’s president, only to be thwarted by other female fans with the same idea.
It is a take-no-prisoners battle on the election trail in this selfiemad nation, where a few shots count more than a close-up with
“everyman” leader Joko Widodo, a former furniture salesman who rose from a slum to high office.
Lilis, 37, was among some 10,000 other desperate housewives, mostly aged between 20 and 50, who braved searing heat as they screamed and jostled, pushing past security guards to reach Joko at an event here on Java island this week.
“I’m sad. I couldn’t get a picture with him,” Lilis said as she sobbed. “He seems like such a nice person, kind of fatherly.”
The lanky, heavy-metal musicloving 57-year-old, best known as Jokowi, seems happy to oblige housewives and other key voters, including millennials who account for about one-third of the electorate as he fights to keep a wide lead in the race for the presidency on April 17.
Some 192 million Indonesians are set to cast a ballot in the world’s third biggest democracy, with a record 245,000 candidates vying for positions from the presidency and parliamentary seats, down to local council jobs.
Garnering support on social media is essential. Indonesia is one of Instagram’s and Facebook’s biggest markets globally, with some 62 million and 130 million users, respectively.
Joko’s sole rival is Prabowo Subianto, a retired general and son-in-law of late dictator Suharto, who ditched his trademark suit and tie for a campaign-casual khaki safari suit with sunglasses.
Prabowo is trying to win over women voters and fans online, balancing his strongman image with an Instagram account of him and his cuddly cat, Bobby.
The 67-year-old and his vicepresidential candidate, Sandiaga Uno, a youthful 49-year-old business magnate, have generated online fan clubs, including the Housewives Party in Support of Prabowo-Sandiaga, the Militant Housewives’ Force and even the Voluptuous Housewives Who Fight for Prabowo-Sandi.
Both candidates are regularly mobbed by adoring female fans, though Joko seems more at home performing in front of crowds.
Back here, Lilis almost reached Joko as he was exiting the arena when someone stepped on her 7year-old daughter’s foot. In leaping to help her little girl, she missed her moment with Joko.
Also empty-handed was teacher Mariana Wahyu, who said she never bothered to get a selfie with her then-neighbour Joko when he was mayor of Solo city.
“Oh Allah, had I known then that he would become president, I would have taken a lot of pictures with him,” she said in Central Java’s Sukoharjo city.