Kampanye di Belopa

March 2004 - While travelling from Bira to Tana Toraja in March, I encountered a 'Kampanye Damai' in Belopa (just before Palopo if travelling from south to north), a campaign which included all 24 parties to promote peacefull elections. An ultimate chance to make some images of their people and the atmosphere in this small town.

		Merdeka car A car decorated with Partai Merdeka stickers and posters. It's a matter of getting as much attention as ...			PAN sticker Partai Amanat Nasional prefers to use small, very small, larger and extremely large stickers to decorate their cars ...			Line-up Queueing for the trip around the alun-alun, since Belopa is a small town, the alun-alun isn't big as ...
		Good people? Are they really the people they say they are? I don't know, and I don't need to know, ...			Vlags everywhere In their effort to promote themselves as much as possible, traffic safety and other regulation is less important ...			Bright red Perjuangan) have gathered one of the biggest 'crowds' to participate in campaigns. They are also one of the ...
		Smile! In an effort to get on my 'news website', they all want to be on my pictures. I ...			Getting ready Almost ready to make the trip around the square. These PDI-P supporters have fun under a scorching hot ...			Amien Rais Proud to be members of PAN, they all like to be on my website as well. ...
		Bigger smile! They old man on the right kept on calling me when I was making pictures around him. He ...			Big flags The big flags is not something reserved for Partai Merdeka, virtually all parties have them. They are attached ...			Smaller flag Smaller flags are used to decorate cars as well. They can also be used as banners on a ...
		Blue and blue The blue sky which caused the sun to be burning hot in a place without many trees and ...			Gifts Gifts are only received in Indonesia, not opened as long as the giver is still around. Maybe that's ...			How to.... ... fix a flag on your car? There are many ways to decorate your car with party flags. ...
		This way! Two big flags on a pick-up truck. Load it with people wearing your party's shirt, and you are ...			Shirts Kaos are another good way to promote your party. Since Indonesians love to wear all kinds of brightly ...			KPU truck The kampanye damai was organised by KPU, the Elections Comittee. ...
		Nasty sticker Damn, if that was my car, I would be very angry at the person sticking this sticker on ...			Finally a picture After drawing attention from me for a while, they could still appreciate the picture I took. ...			Big, bigger, biggest As Golkar is one of the oldest existing parties in Indonesia, they also know how to acquire their ...
		Party office These signs can be found in every desa and town. Mostly Golkar, PDI-P and PAN are the best ...			Hmmm... Actually they don't hurt you, but here, police still has more 'power' than in the country I'm living ...			Whoops Now the police got in an arguement with some PDI-P supporters which violate traffic regulations. All of a ...
		Finished After some words, the PDI-P supporters leave and the rest of the parties can start their trip around ...