The millennials, born between 1980 and 2000, are not only voters, but also the determinants of the future of the country.
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Kompas/Lasti Kurnia
A view of the courtroom during a trial of an election administrative violation at the Election Monitoring Body (Bawaslu) office in Jakarta on Wednesday (8/11). Bawaslu held trials for alleged administrative violations in preparation for the 2019 elections. It plans to issue a ruling on Nov. 14.
“Give me 10 young men, I will shake the world.” That\'s how former president Sukarno talked about the power of young people in making a change.
The statement of our first president is gaining back a place in the political arena in this country. Not because we have just celebrated the Youth Pledge Day and Heroes Day, which involves many young people, but because this nation is soon entering the political year.
In 2018, there will be 171 regions that will hold regional elections (Pilkada) simultaneously. In 2019, Indonesia will for the first time hold general elections when the people will choose their representatives in the House of Representatives (DPR),Regional Representatives Council (DPD) and Regional Legislative Council (DPRD), and directly elect the president and the vice president simultaneously.
The Election Commission estimates that in the 2019 election there will be at least 192 million voters. Young voters aged 17-38 years will dominate. The amount could be more than 55 percent of the total voters.
The young generation born between 1980 and 2000, called the millennials, are not only voters, but also the determinants of the future of the country. They are the key determining factors of the national leadership in the future, according to a report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Central Election and Political Party of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Indonesia, and Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting.
On the other hand, the majority of millennials are considered apolitical. They keep their distance from political parties and the majority of them avoid practical politics. They know politics through social media, the media they access the most.
Based on research by Pew Research Center (United States) released in 2010, the millennial lifestyle cannot be separated from the use of digital technology and pop culture.
Tim Mottau, the brand planning director of Merkley + Partners, New York (USA), said in his presentation in AdAsia Bali 2017, on Thursday, that whatever the organization, the millennial generation creates a new perspective.
The key to success lies in the willingness to participate, encourage, and listen to the aspirations of the millennial generation, which tends to be less concerned with "big names."
In the business world, there are many millennials who have become influential leaders. Many young people less than 40 years old have become regional heads. Political parties, governments, and society cannot ignore the millennial generation, and need to help them not only to determine national leadership but to become leaders. They should not be like a number of young leaders, who have been involved in a number of cases such as those related to corruption.
