Making Your Choice: Indonesian Elections for Dummies
The Indonesian general elections are just around the corner (February 14th, or February 11th for Indonesian UK residents) and why is it harder to choose a candidate than to get a date for Valentine's? According to a member of Komisi Pemilihan Umum, August Mellaz, 55% of the voters in the 2024 elections are Gen-Z and Millennials. Many politicians have stressed how important it is for young generations to submit their votes because, truly, the future is in the palm of our hands. So how do we make the right choice? How do we start with research? What are some credible resources? How do I learn more about politics? To help you with the stress of choosing your perfect candidate, here are a few tips that have helped me and can hopefully help you!
The first thing to do is quite self-explanatory, which is to get to know your personal vision for Indonesia: what do you wish to see in Indonesia in the next five years? For example, what kind of policies do you want to see established? Or what issues do you want abolished? Finding the answer to these questions can be overwhelming, especially for those who aren’t familiar with politics.
To make it easier, it might be helpful to reflect on your personal experiences while living in Indonesia. Are there any policies or laws that have directly affected you or your family? How did it impact your life? Even something as simple as “I hate the polluted Jakarta weather” or “My parents are paying too many taxes” can help build some ideas. Then, you can make a list of all the sectors you primarily want to see a change in. For example, the economic sector, cybersecurity, investments, defence, foreign affairs, etc. This helps you during the research stage, as you can find a candidate that will fulfil your vision in certain sectors.
After you’ve completed the first step, it is finally time to do your independent research. When you think of research, you might think of marathoning MetroTV footage or reading endless Kumparan articles; but that is no fun! There are a few ways to make research more Gen-Z/Milennial friendly. Firstly, it might sound taxing, but consuming primary sources is still very important; so try to watch or read as much as you can. Whether it be stalking their Instagram accounts, watching old Mata Najwa interviews, or live streaming the presidential debate---there are many entertaining ways for you to stay updated! Their Instagram accounts are regularly updated with their recent achievements and whereabouts, which gives you an idea of how they interact with the people and what kinds of programmes they’ve initiated. Whereas watching their interviews will show you how they are as a person; their ideologies, their thought processes, and even something as small as mannerisms. Overall, it’s a great step to slowly get to know the candidates.
Other than primary sources, it is also helpful to obtain more information through secondary sources. It might be overwhelming to choose a trustworthy source of information among many in Indonesian media (considering that most big news outlets are biased nowadays) so let me give you some credible source recommendations! My favourite source so far is Bijak Memilih, the ultimate guide for beginners in politics. It has everything you need, starting from profiles of the presidential candidates, profiles of the political parties, current issues in Indonesia and the candidates’ perspectives on it, and even something as simple as how to vote. Their information is highly objective as they are transparent about where they obtain their sources (primarily from institutions such as KPU and KPK.) With how concise and thorough they are, I cannot recommend this website enough!
Other than that, I find it helpful to stay updated through social media by following various political accounts. Some of them have opinion pieces, which I find helpful when I’m trying to navigate through a certain topic or issue (though please remember to be critical!) My favourites are those that post bite-size content, such as @WhatisUpIndonesia, @thinkpolicyid, @komisi.co, and @pinterpolitik. Thanks to them, politics have become more understandable and concise! These accounts have a talent for making politics entertaining with their “Gen-Z/Milennial” approach (meaning a good sense of humour and impeccable graphic design.)
Speaking of humour, following politics-themed meme accounts such as @politicaljokesid and @friendlylocalpage can also keep you updated. Besides, a few good laughs won’t hurt us! Overall, different kinds of sources give you diverse information. Consuming as many (credible) sources as you can helps deepen your understanding of Indonesia’s political landscape, which in turn will help you make your choice.
This is also a small PS for fellow UK students. Sometimes we feel left out with all the happenings in Indonesia since we aren’t physically there, but it’s actually quite easy to stay in touch! Just follow Instagram accounts such as @folkative and @ussfeed, as they provide credible and quick news.
After you’ve mastered politics, it’s time to test your ideas against others! This might sound intimidating at first but talking about politics with others might help broaden our perspectives. By discussing this, we can gain insights into people’s experiences with the government, and how they feel about certain candidates, and some politics fans would even analyse the government head-to-toe for you. I recommend talking to a variety of people, not just your same-aged friends or your parents. Talk to your work colleagues, your tukang sayur (vegetable merchant), or a few friends from your elementary school back home! Different people of different backgrounds will have their own unique opinions, which makes each discussion more interesting and insightful. Other than that, watching the presidential debate with other people is fun as well (it seriously feels like a World Cup event.) People will talk about their disappointments and approvals towards each candidate, which can be your opportunity to see others’ perspectives!
After you’ve done all that, it’s still important to cross-check everything that people have said to you. Who knows? They might not be as good as you are when it comes to researching, we still need to be careful! It is also important to not force someone into admitting who they are voting for because it violates our principles in voting, so please be careful with what you say!
After all that research and discussion, the final step of Election for Dummies is to circle back to step one. Now that you are more well-informed, you can ask yourself the same question:
what do you wish to see in Indonesia for the next five years? Retrace all the information you’ve consumed and finally decide which candidate is more likely to bring your vision and mission to life.
Alas, this is the end of Indonesian Elections for Dummies! It is very simple, isn’t it? The easy steps are: get to know your own vision, find sources or communities that will help you understand politics better, and find people to healthily discuss this topic with. At the end of the day, you might ask yourself; how do I know that I’ve made the right decision? Always remember that voting is about the freedom of choice. If you feel like your vote is right, then that is all that matters.
P.S. For fellow UK voters, please remember to register through KBRI and check whether you are qualified to vote at https://cekdptonline.kpu.go.id/! A guide on how to vote is available on PPI’s Instagram!
