Political Parties Need to Work Hard to Meet Expectations of Young Voters

Political parties and leaders should work hard to create a system and cultivate behaviors that are free of corruption.

KOMPAS/RIZA FATHONI

Generation Y who grew up with the rapid growth of the digital world and social networks in the world of work. Political parties must address the changes in voters' characters, as the younger generations will increase to be the dominant force in politics.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS - Political party executives and organizations must work hard to create a system and cultivate behaviors that are free of corruption in order to satisfy the desire of young voters to elect a clean and corruption-free leader. Political parties must address the changes in voters’ characters, as the younger generations will increasingly be the dominant force in politics.

Previously, the results of a survey conducted by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Central Jakarta, on 8-13 August 2022, showed that 34.8 percent of young voters aged 17-39 years preferred honest and corruption-free leaders. Other respondents preferred leaders that are humble and pro-people (15.9 percent), firm and authoritative (12.4 percent), achievers who perform well (11.6 percent) as well as those with prior leadership experience (10.1 percent).

Charta Politica executive director Yunarto Wijaya, who was contacted from Jakarta on Tuesday (27/9/2022), said all surveys found that a corruption-free leader is the ideal moral standard. However, this goes against the corrupt political ecosystem that is unable to produce a leader candidate who is free of corruption. In fact, the public has yet to fully reject money politics that often occurs in electoral events.

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> Young Voters want Corruption-Free Leader

“The reality is that they feel no one can meet those moral standards so young voters tend to seek other qualities that, more often than not, lack qualitative meaning. They’ll look at appearance, style of speech, or levels of religiosity, for example,” said Yunarto.

According to him, however, political parties and leaders should still work hard to create a system and cultivate behaviors that are free of corruption. Looking at the leadership experiences of several regional heads, efforts to create a virtuous government via bureaucratic reform gives added value.

Additionally, the creation of a more transparent and corruption-free system is a demand of the times that political parties will inevitably have to fulfill. It is necessary amid technological developments and changes in the characters of voters, who are now dominated by millennials. As a generation that has mastered technology and information, millennials are also known to be more critical of political conditions, including issues of corruption.

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Compared to generation Y or millennials, generation Z is more familiar with technology because they were born after mature internet technology was developed. Therefore, generation Z is sometimes referred to as the internet generation. Political party executives and organizations must work hard to create a system and cultivate behaviors that are free of corruption in order to satisfy the desire of young voters to elect a clean and corruption-free leader.

Political party claims

Golkar Party central executive board chairman Ace Hasan Syadzily said that Golkar agreed with young voters’ preference for a humble and populist leader, someone with integrity and a clean, corruption-free track record. Ace claimed that Airlangga Hartarto, the party’s chairman, who has been proposed as a presidential candidate in 2024, fits the bill. So far, Airlangga has never been involved in any legal cases, especially graft.

A clean track record that is free of corruption, Ace continued, was also one of the things the party considered when Airlangga took over the chairmanship from Setya Novanto. This decision was made to protect Golkar from negative publicity after Setya Novanto was found to be involved in the high-profile electronic identity card (e-KTP) corruption case in 2018.

Besides keeping their internal affairs clean, Golkar is also committed to presenting clean presidential candidates when making electoral alliances in the upcoming 2024 presidential race. Golkar, along with National Mandate Party (PAN) and the United Development Party (PPP), which together form the United Indonesia Coalition (KIB), plans to examine the track records of potential presidential and vice-presidential candidates. This is important because Indonesia needs corruption-free figures to lead the country and realize good governance.

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> Young People Want Concrete Action from Political Parties

> Relevant Political Parties

Spokesman for the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) Muhammad Kholid also claimed that his party is committed to nominating a presidential and vice-presidential candidate pair that is clean, has integrity and is free of corruption. In fact, these are the characteristics that PKS will look for when forming an alliance. Thus, it is certain that the candidate pair will have a clear track record of eradicating corruption and display strong commitment regarding the issue.

According to Kholid, an individual’s corruption-free behavior is traceable. Indicators include the track record of their performance while serving as a state official as well as information that cannot be accessed by the general public. Track records of figures holding public office are easier to trace compared to figures that have never held that position.

“It’s not hard to realize public accountability, especially if the presidential candidates that are supported are people who have served in public office before,” said Kholid.

This article was translated by Kesya Adhalia.