Celebrity role in Indonesian election

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By Lucy Williamson BBC News, Jakarta Mohammad Hamdan is using the same campaign slogan as Barack Obama did

Political slogans don't come with a better pedigree than Mohammad Hamdan's.

His message, as he treads the campaign trail on the outskirts of Jakarta each week, is simple: Yes We Can.

He swears the slogan was his own invention, not swiped from its previous owner, Barack Obama, who is now president of the United States.

Change, he says, is just as much an Indonesian product as it is an American one.

"Obama might have been the one who inspired the world in bringing change," he told me as he canvassed in his local market, "and he's certainly had a success story with it - but I think there are many local reasons why people want change."

Reasons like corruption. It has been a huge political driver here.

It helped sweep the autocratic President Suharto from power a decade ago. And a promise to tackle it helped elect current President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Or reasons like the economy: many Indonesians feel their quality of life to be falling, that there aren't enough jobs, that even basic goods are too expensive.

Indonesian idol

Small wonder, then, that Barack Obama and his message of change have had an impact on campaigns here.

Almost all candidates have run campaigns that are big on personality

He has even appeared - with digital help - alongside candidates in their campaign posters. But then, so has footballer David Beckham. And James Bond. And Superman.

In fact, it can sometimes seem as if many of Indonesia's would-be politicians are concerned less with changing society than changing their costumes.

But then image is big in this election.

In the 10 years since the start of democracy here, political parties have multiplied, and this time - for the first time - voters will directly elect individual candidates, not simply the party itself.

The pressure to stand out is fierce. Those with a lot of money have splashed out on television adverts.

Those with a little less have recruited local celebrities in the hope of winning over voters.

Almost all candidates have run campaigns that are big on personality, big on photos, but a bit thinner on substance.

All of this has made for a colourful and noisy battle, but is it really what voters want? Has democracy delivered?

Real grassroots

Enda Nasution was one of those students who helped overthrow Suharto a decade ago. Now, he says, politics leaves many young people cold.

I think we're just very intrigued by all this - but can we not do better than this? Enda Nasution

"I think it's a love-hate relationship. We hate that there are so many people who are 'political', but on the other hand, we know this political process is important.

"We want to be in a group we can be proud of."

What they are not proud of, he says, are the gimmicks everyone is talking about.

"Some candidates put their Superman suit on, or they put Obama's picture, or David Beckham's picture for example.

"I think we're just very intrigued by all this and cannot help ourselves wondering - these [people] are going to be our leaders. Can we not do better than this?"

Perhaps they can. Which is why, in this little backstreet cafe, Enda has started a new website to get young people involved in politics, and put their views to the country's leaders.

It is uncensored and very democratic; viewers decide which articles get headlined by voting on them.

The idea is to help young people find their voice - to speak up about the real things they want changed in Indonesia, no matter how small they might seem, or how remote from the corridors of power.

Real grassroots stuff in other words. And, who knows, maybe real change.