The Election simulation in the Gedebage Sub-District Office, Bandung City, West Java, Wednesday (03/10/2018). The voting for the 2019 Election will be held April 17, 2019.
Sunday, Oct. 20, 2019, is an important date on the nation’s constitutional calendar. On that date, the mandate of President Joko Widodo and Vice President Jusuf Kalla will end. The government seats must not be left empty, so that democracy can be maintained with regularity. The elite circulate only through the general elections, there is no other way!
The general election on April 17, 2019 will be critical ahead of Oct. 20. It is the final stage of the consolidation of Indonesian democracy. If everything runs well (and is good against historical records), Indonesia can establish itself as a mature democracy.
About 186 million voters will cast their ballots on Wednesday, April 17, 2019. Around 79 million voters are aged 17-35 years. Meanwhile, netizens connected through a variety of social media networks will be voting for the first time.
One thing that needs attention is the threat of the decreasing trend in political participation from one election to the next. Political participation reached 92.74 percent in the 1999 general election, which dropped to 70.96 percent in the 2009 legislative election and rose slightly to 75.11 percent in the 2014 legislative election. Voter exhaustion is an issue that seems to require reexamining. In several cities, including Medan, the abstention rate in major regional elections has reached up to 74 percent.
April 17, 2019, which falls on a Wednesday, has been declared a national holiday. The following three days from Thursday, April 18, 2019, to Sunday, April 21, 2019, mark the Easter Triduum for Christians and Catholics. When politics causes feelings of stress and anxiety, vacation packages have the potential of becoming more attractive. Extra effort needs to be made so that the general election is not seen as a frightening event, but a joyful one.
There are still 195 days left until we arrive at what is referred to as a "referendum". Sociopolitical tensions will occur throughout this period. Social polarization will widen from early January to April. In the referendum, the decision is returned to the people. Whether the people will still decide to give their mandate to President Joko Widodo and his running mate, K.H. Ma\'ruf Amin, or transfer the mandate to the Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Uno pair, it is all up to the Indonesian people.
A general election is a tool of democracy for the people to elect their leaders. The May 1998 Reform Movement opened the door to the return sovereignty to the people. The movement created the space for political freedom, freedom of organization and the freedom of the press, with all their attendant problems. The Amendment to the 1945 Constitution allows a sovereign people determine their own leaders.
Social media
The next 195 days it may be a tiring journey in the political-psychological context. Social media is sharply increasing polarization in society. The social media algorithms expose its users to information that corresponds with their established views. Satu
Meja: The Forum (Kompas TV, 2018; One table: The forum), which has been expounded in several media and political studies journals, calls this the cyberghetto, Echospace or information cocoon effect. This situation is sharpening polarization in society.
The public will be divided into the "cebong” and "kampret” pools, in which truth is determined by conviction. Opinions that affirm individual beliefs are accepted as truth. Meanwhile, objective facts are treated as hoaxes if they are not in alignment with their beliefs. The digital machines on various social media can map the people\'s preferred choice. The subjects of regional campaigns are determined by data from digital machines. The presidential poll could be run every week, based on conversations on social media.
Public confidence in the presidential candidates will continue to be shaken by the variety of "information" or information, "data" or data, as well as between noise and voice, substance and sensation, hate speech and compassion, reality and image, praise and criticism, and between lies and truth. The large amount of "information" on social media can make people lose their orientation as to which is right, which is half right, which is wrong. Due to the heightened commotion on social media, a meme humorously conveys the message: "You are entering a crowded area of hoax. Put a seat belt on your common sense and straighten up the chair back of your brain". Common sense and skepticism are indeed keywords for filtering the information. Common sense will guide who will be chosen.
Viral content (videos, photos, quotes), which is an attempt to disseminate information to the public, has turned into a political tool; to pressure the government, to delegitimize and deconstruct the candidate pairs, as well as to shape images.
Competition on social media has added to the democratic uproar. This needs attention. Online debates and arguments go offline to cause crime.
Social media has contributed to the sharpening of social polarization. Daryna Grechhyna’s study in "On the Determinant of Political Polarization" (2016) concluded that socio-historical factors and economic phenomena affect polarization in society through 10 determinants: gross domestic product per capita, income gap, globalization, government expenditure, media independence, ethnolinguistic fractionalization, trust, democracy, population density and geography. And the greatest determinants are trust and income gap (Note, Satu Meja, p. 137).
These problems all exist in Indonesia. Therefore, even though the general election is a democratic instrument to choose a nation’s leaders, social media and grassroots movements to revive Indonesian-ness is still necessary, as predictions on Indonesia’s 2019-2024 leaders will emerge several hours after the quick count.
This nation has many politicians, but is short of statesmen. Politicians think only about the elections, but statesmen think about the future of their nation. The 2019 general election will determine whether Indonesia is to be a divided society or a mature society of reconciliation. This effort must be initiated and created: competition, and then reconciliation
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