Ridwan Sijabat and Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta
The "Cinderella ticket" is perhaps a fitting description for the
pairing of Hamzah Haz and Agum Gumelar, especially given that they
like to cast themselves as underdogs in the upcoming presidential
election due to their lack of political and financial support.
Hamzah, the vice president and leader of the United Development
Party (PPP), which came in third in the April 5 legislative
election, said his campaign had only Rp 500 billion to spend, but
believed this would be enough to get the supporters out during the
month-long campaign.
He said he and Agum were determined to create a new Indonesia
with better social welfare, the upholding of social justice and
better handling of the economic and moral crises.
"The development policy will give more attention to religious
freedom, improvements in the quality of education and technology,
and community economic development," he said after Friday prayers in
Bogor, West Java.
Born in Ketapang, West Kalimantan, on Feb. 15, 1940, Hamzah
studied economics and graduated from the State Cooperatives Academy,
Yogyakarta, in 1962. He also studied economics at Tanjungpura
University in West Kalimantan in 1970.
Agum, a retired army lieutenant general, would appear to have a
strong base in the military. He has said he will focus on
campaigning among servicemen's dependents and ex-servicemen
nationwide, as well as in his native province of West Java.
"The 8.15 percent of voters who supported PPP in the legislative
election is expected to remain loyal. Our party workers in the
provinces, regencies/municipalities and districts are now trying to
win over the swing voters," he said after a meeting with officials
from the Association of Ex-servicemen and Servicemen's Dependents
(Pepabri) here on Friday.
He said Hamzah and he had agreed to Create a new cabinet
structure, and would declare all-out war on corruption if they won
the election.
"The National Police will be subordinated to the Ministry of Home
Affairs, or the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, while the
Indonesian Military (TNI) will be subordinated to the Ministry of
Defense. The TNI will be led by the joint chiefs of staff. The
economy must be developed to create more jobs and corruption must be
eradicated," he said.
Agum, who was born in Tasikmalaya, West Java, on Dec. 17, 1945,
studied medicine at Padjadjaran University for one year before
switching to the military. He is a graduate of the National Military
Academy (AMN).