Practical politics that tends to highlight power struggles in the past several years has disappointed the youth.
By
Budi Suwarna
·3 minutes read
Kompas/Totok Wijayanto
The office of financial technology (fintech) company Koinworks in the Tanah Abang area of West Jakarta (16/3). Koinworks is an application that facilitates loans between people through financial technology. The financing model is aimed at helping start-ups.
Practical politics that tends to highlight power struggles in the past several years has disappointed the youth. They then develop their own political movement to ensure that their voices are heard, and their dreams realized.
A Kompas Research and Development (Litbang Kompas) survey held among college students in the second half of December 2017 showed that many youths perceived politics as something negative. Once they were given the word “politics,” many relate the word to power, corruption and lies. Only 18 percent correlates the words “politics” to “democracy.”
How can they not when the country is rife with corruption cases involving political elites? Political intrigue and statements of political agents of divisiveness continue to spread in private spaces.
Practical politics is distanced from the youth. Furthermore, almost no established political parties fight for the interests and hopes of the youth; they only approach them to gain votes.
The Kompas survey highlights that the youth feels that that kind of politics is far away from the real goals of politics, namely to create a prosperous and just communal life that guarantees freedom.
As hate speeches, slander and hoaxes reign in public spaces, many youths make breakthroughs against hoaxes.
Despite their frustration, disappointment and anger toward practical politics that prioritize power struggles, the youth choose not to be apathetic. They do not run away from their problems. Instead, they use available spaces to speak and create. Some youths create new spaces to fight for their interests, hopes and dreams of a better Indonesia.
As the state cannot provide access to education for all citizens, several youth groups established free schools and provide books for children living in remote villages. As hate speeches, slander and hoaxes reign in public spaces, many youths make breakthroughs against hoaxes. Literacy and anti-hoax movements initiated by youths are now everywhere in the real world and online, in all corners of urban centers and rural areas.
The youth, with their intelligence, network and information technology skills, are making breakthroughs unimaginable by previous generations. Some youths have made applications that facilitate farmers to bypass middlemen and access the market. Some do online crowdfunding to help those in need.
In the realm of pop culture, the younger generations are more fearless and firm in voicing their opinions and showing their attitude. During the New Order, musicians like Iwan Fals shined the spotlight on rotten bureaucracy, social inequality and lawmakers sleeping in plenary sessions. Right now, young musicians highlight more diverse issues in more detail, including the reclamation of coastal areas, the manipulation of voting ballots, land ownership, food sovereignty, inequalities in transportation infrastructure between Java and Papua, and contraception campaigns.
Kompas/Rony Ariyanto Nugroho
A computer screen displays the Hoax Analyzer software developed by three informatics engineering students from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) in Bandung, West Java (12/5). The software will represent Southeast Asia in the international software competition in the United States. It was created to filter hoaxes or false news based on reliable news sources.
In films, young directors highlights stories of activists’ kidnappings, imbalanced power relations in villages and brave women fighting against oppression. The stories present an alternative discourse in the face of dominant narratives that we have known for years.
This is the true face of politics as developed by the youth amid chaotic power struggles among the nation’s elites. The youth’s version of politics is a grounded one that gives room for discussion and differences. It is this true form of politics that will deliver the nation to a better and more prosperous life.
