‘Kampred’: Expletive becomes peaceful campaign tool

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, Thursday June 05 2014,


The word kampred, an acronym derived from kampanye presiden damai (peaceful presidential campaign), has become the term à la mode on social media as people use it to counter political character assassination.

Twitter account @pasti_riki, for instance, posted on Wednesday morning: “I miss the old you, before becoming a campaigner on my Facebook page. Kampred!” adding, “Sorry, I will remove you from my friends list if you continue to post smear campaigns on my page.”

“Kampred” was seen on the Facebook pages of many eligible accounts such as photographer Mohammad Safir Makki and working mother Erista Indrawati.

“I am waiting for the old you next month,” Erista lamented after using the word kampred.

The presidential election is scheduled for July 9.

Kampred has two meanings: It can mean a bat but it can also be used as an expletive if someone is extremely angry with another person.

Jakarta-based writer Sophia Moeljono, who has tried to remain neutral throughout the election
period, said this new use of
kampred had come about as people were fed up with the political mudslinging.

“The not-so-clever supporters will post any negative story they can find on a candidate, as they believe it will lose him votes. Sadly, they don’t care if the story is true or not,” Sophia told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

She said that two of her friends had ended their friendship because of an argument over their conflicting opinions of the presidential candidates.

“I think people like this are immature,” she added.

Meanwhile, for Tiara Maharani, an employee of a private company in Central Jakarta, social media was rife with negative campaigns, which made her reluctant to open Twitter or Facebook.

Tiara said these supporters had forgotten that the real issue was who would solve the country’s problems.

“I do not want to engage in dirty political discussions on social media. It is a shame,” she said.

As the presidential election draws near, smear campaigns have gained momentum, including claims that the non-active Jakarta Governor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is of Chinese descent and was a Christian.

Meanwhile, presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto has long dealt with allegations about his involvement in human rights violations during the May 1998 riots.

More recently, he was accused of having dual Indonesian-Jordanian citizenship.

Previously, NasDem Party chief patron Surya Paloh said that slur campaigns, especially on matters pertaining to ethnicity and religion, had the potential to trigger riots during the presidential election.

Therefore, he said, NasDem would not tolerate any parties that engaged in negative campaigning.

Surya also urged the political elites to be exemplary models of the principles of unity and diversity.

The word kampred is also in use on Path and Instagram.


( In my much younger days the word " kampred" was spelled with a 't' on the end and meant if it was directed to you, that the speaker did not think very highly or friendly about you, more along the line of 'bajingan or kacung' meaning boef or schurk in Nederlands)siK.



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