A Political Year without SARA Issues

Kompas/Didie SW

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The years 2018 and 2019 are often called “political years.” Momentum from the 2018 simultaneous regional elections and the 2019 simultaneous general elections seemingly justifies such labeling. No one has protested the labeling, anyway. What, then, are the challenges our nation faces in these political years?

Before answering this question, we need to first straighten things out. Every year is fundamentally a political year, in the sense that no policy any public sector can run without making some political decisions. A collective life that is fair, prosperous, democratic and properly managed can only be achieved through political decisions, both collectively agreed upon by the president and lawmakers, and unilaterally issued by a government elected through general elections.

It is just that the years 2018 and 2019 seem to be special “political years” as we will hold 171 simultaneous regional elections in 2018 – the third phase of simultaneous regional elections after previous ones in 2015 and 2017. Meanwhile, the 2019 general elections will be the first simultaneous one for Indonesia, in which legislative and presidential elections will be held concurrently.

Therefore, in the 2019 elections, we will decide the future on five democratic institutions, namely the presidency and vice presidency along with the House of Representatives, the Regional Representatives Council (DPD) and the provincial and city/regency levels of Regional Legislative Councils (DPRD). As has been scheduled by the General Elections Commission (KPU), the process for the 2019 Simultaneous General Elections began in late 2017 with the registration and verification of political parties participating in the election. The process will continue throughout 2018 and 2019.

The regional and general elections are fundamentally momentums to celebrate the people’s sovereignty.

The coinciding and even overlapping momentums of the simultaneous regional and general elections explains why political party elites are convinced that coalitions between political parties in the upcoming regional election will determine the success of forming coalition in the 2019 presidential election. The recent heated and tense dynamics between political parties in supporting candidates in the 2018 regional elections seem reflect this. Party elites are convinced that their success in forming political coalitions to win regional elections will determine their success in winning the presidential election.

Political parties’ failure to focus

The regional and general elections are fundamentally momentums to celebrate the people’s sovereignty. No matter how one wishes to see it, both events must be viewed as routine political events that give the people greater opportunities as possible to choose the regional head candidates they deem the best in terms of track record, capability, vision, leadership, morality and integrity.

The problem is that political parties, as democratic institutions with the authority and responsibility of supporting candidate pairs of regional heads and deputy regional heads, are neither focused nor prepared for authority. With regards to to the candidate pairs they support in the 2018 regional elections, some parties are making excuses to delay the declaration of candidates – including by withdrawing or cancelling their support of certain candidates – up to the last minutes of the KPU’s registration deadline.

Such a failure to focus also explains why Gerindra preferred to support Yenny Wahid as an East Java gubernatorial candidate instead of preparing and supporting its own member.

Explanations of such a political reality include the lack of a clear, measurable, periodic and continuous recruitment system in our political parties and the lack of seriousness among political party elites and leaders to institutionalize their cadre-based recruitment traditions. The phenomenon of Golkar Party withdrawing its support for Ridwan Kamil in the West Java election, for instance, as well as the decision of several local political elites of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) to resign from the party after its central board decides to support external candidates at the expense of party members at the NTT gubernatorial election reflect such a political reality.

Such a failure to focus also explains why Gerindra preferred to support Yenny Wahid as an East Java gubernatorial candidate instead of preparing and supporting its own member. As is later reported, Yenny decided to choose “the historical duty” of fighting for the ideas of her late father, Abdurrahmad “Gus Dur” Wahid, rather than fighting in the mud to gain power in East Java. The tug of war between the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the Democratic Party in the West Java election can also be viewed in the same context.

A joyful democracy

The next challenge our nation will have to face in these political years are in making the regional elections in 17 provinces, 115 regencies and 39 cities in 2018 not only free and democratic but also peaceful and without tumult. The political cost will be huge if the regional elections that should have been momentums of peaceful leadership transition are marred with deepened conflicts and political divisions as they will only continue in the 2019 simultaneous general elections.

The decision to choose or not to choose certain candidates are seemingly linked to voters’ ethnicity or religion.

The problem is that peaceful and tumult-free regional elections require not only a fair and sportsmanlike competition, but also the institutionalization of mutual trust between the various societal elements and groups. It is hard to deny that one of the major sources of political chaos and conflicts right now is the institutionalization of mutual suspicion among many elements of our nations. As a result, as we see in the Jakarta election, the people could not enjoy democracy in a joyful and peaceful atmosphere.

On the contrary, the people are pressured by political mobilization based on primordial identities, especially religion and ethnicity. The decision to choose or not to choose certain candidates are seemingly linked to voters’ ethnicity or religion. Regional elections that should have been seen as contestations to find leaders based on performance have seemingly been turned into events to choose religions based on bias perceptions of the candidates’ levels of piety.

Without serious efforts by the state, political parties and the people to avoid them, the political realities of the Jakarta election can be repeated in other regions. On the level of the state, a consistency of law enforcement is necessary, including the upholding of regional election campaign rules under Law No. 10/2016 on regional elections. The law’s Article 69 Point (b) clearly stipulates the prohibition of insulting individuals, as well as the religions, ethnicities, races and groups of regional head candidates.

At the level of political parties, the problem is the lack of awareness among political party leadership on the destructive power of election competition marred by the politicization of issues of SARA sentiments.

The next point in the same article stipulates the prohibition of using provocation, slander and divide-and-conquer methods among individuals, social groups and political parties in political campaigns. Included in this stipulation is the ban of misusing houses of worship as places for campaign and to provoke, slander and pit groups of candidates’ or political parties’ supporters against each other. Preventing this is the responsibility of the National Police and election organizers, especially the Election Supervisory Body.

Election without SARA

At the level of political parties, the problem is the lack of awareness among political party leadership on the destructive power of election competition marred by the politicization of issues of ethnic, religious, racial and intergroup (SARA) sentiments. This is reflected in the involvement of a number of political party leaders and elites in in SARA-tinged mass mobilization ahead of the 2017 Jakarta election. They were not aware that the political and social wounds resulting from SARA-based political divisions are not only difficult to heal but may potentially be inherited through generations by party supporters and loyalists in the grassroots.

Elites and community leaders must also be aware of the vast, deep and massive potentials of the damage our nation will have to endure if regional and general elections facilitate conflicts based on SARA sentiments. No destruction is greater than that caused by SARA-based conflicts. The destruction sustained by Syria and Iraq in the Middle East due to the group declaring itself as Islamic State (IS) is a clear example of the level of destruction a SARA-based conflict can create.

It is clear that the republic as it was agreed upon by our founding father is not one based on certain religion, ethnicity, race or religion.

Therefore, the greatest challenge our nation will need to face ahead of the 2018 simultaneous regional elections and 2019 simultaneous general elections are not just in finding and electing the leaders with integrity and a sense of responsibility. Far more important than that is to ensure that the process to search said leader is conducted peacefully, with dignity and without intervention of SARA-based sentiments.

Furthermore, it is clear that the republic as it was agreed upon by our founding father is not one based on certain religion, ethnicity, race or religion. Instead, it is a nation founded upon the values of Pancasila. Surely it is our collective moral responsibility to nurture this diversity in order to strengthen Indonesia.

Syamsuddin Haris

Research Professor, Indonesian Institute of Sciences