“The irony behind the descent into a war of billboards during a crisis is that the politicians in the fray are part of the same government. This underlines a particular characteristic of Indonesian party and electoral politics — the rivalry between factions and their leading figures frames everything. If anything, the criticism of the billboard war’s inappropriate timing is an indictment of Indonesian politics: it is more about rivalry between duelling politicians and their personalities, rather than any discussion about policy.”

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