Representation and symbolic politics in Indonesia: billboard advertising in the 2009 Legislative Assembly Elections

One of the most visible political phenomena during Indonesia’s 2009 Legislative Assembly Election was the promulgation of the candidates’ ideology through billboards as a new cultural artefact. During the campaign, streets all over Indonesia were dotted with the candidates’ billboards as the result of the amended law of Legislative Election. The law stipulates that the candidates are now obliged to present themselves directly to the public for the first time. The billboard represents the convoluted web of representation which shows the complexity of polarisations between Nationalist and Islamist strands in the political discursive practices of the major parties. The paper deciphers how the Nationalist and Islamist strands’ images were constructed, constested and obscured on the billboards. Nine billboards that represent the nine winning parties (five nationalist and four Islamist) are examined to disentangle the complexity of the politics of image in Indonesia