The political developments occurring as voting day approaches on April 17 are not conducive for the democratic process. It is possible that the electoral integrity and the legitimacy of the results of the 2019 general election, especially the presidential election, would be disrupted (Kompas, 05/01/2019).
The most prominent developments are the disorientation of public reason through the spreading of hoaxes and disinformation and the manipulation of data and facts. For example, one hoax claims that "there are seven containers containing about 70 million ballot papers that have been punched for the presidential and vice presidential candidate pair number 01" (02/01/2019).
The quick steps taken by the General Election Commission (KPU) to investigate at Tanjung Priok Port need to be appreciated. It soon ascertained the news was a hoax circulated by certain parties to create political commotion and delegitimize the 2019 presidential election.
Imagine the political commotion that could occur if a hoax like this spreads one or two days before or after the voting on April 17. The KPU and the police would have little time to clear up the problem, while at the political damage and noise may spread everywhere.
Because of such a possibility, almost certainly this unfavorable phenomenon would continue and its intensity may increase at critical moments that are prone to commotion ahead of voting and during the vote count and the determination of the winner of the presidential election.
Anticipating these developments and ensuring that the 2019 general election does not lose legitimacy, the public’s political reasoning to foster political logic and a healthy outlook needs to be refreshed. Only with sound political reasoning can the political process produce legitimate leadership.
Politics that misuses or manipulates reasoning, the “politics of unreasoning”, is not new. For a long time, various manipulative and misleading ways of reasoning used to achieve certain political goals and interests have been the practice of political circles in democratic systems and processes.
This kind of politics of was perfectly narrated by writer and philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527). In is work, The Prince, Machiavelli described the ways for a regime to get and maintain power. By thinking only about themselves, the regime or political forces that want to be in power manipulate, cheat and exploit. The methods used frequently do not use healthy reasoning.
Democratic political systems are clearly not immune to politics without reason or Machiavellian politics in differing degrees from one country to another. Power elites, political elites, economic elites, religious elites and socio-cultural elites are often involved in unholy alliances in applying politics without reasoning.
The spread of the politics of unreasoning seems to have increased in the past two decades. At least three developments have encouraged the strengthening of this kind of politics. The first was an increase in the number of countries adopting democracy; the second was the rise of identity politics related to economic and socio-cultural crises in several developed countries; and the third was the improvement of information technology with instant media that enables the rapid dissemination of a massive amount of content.
These three factors combine to encourage the growth of politics without reasoning, which can also be called post-truth politics. In circumstances in which facts are less important than emotions and personal beliefs that are often influenced by hoaxes, those hoaxes become more decisive in the political attitude of the citizens. At this stage, politics that employs healthy reasoning seems unable to shape the political civilization of the citizens.
To make the situation worse, educated and middle class people are dragged into post-truth politics. Educated people not only try to build arguments and justifications to strengthen the politics of unreasoning, they are also active in the creation and spread of hoaxes and disinformation. They also do not hesitate to manipulate religious sentiments to strengthen the political positions they support.
All the symptoms of post-truth politics can be seen to be strengthening before the general election. Therefore, the elites must make various efforts to prevent Indonesia from falling into the politics of unreasoning. To safeguard a united and developed nation-state, there is no other choice: The politics that holds supremacy should always be a politics of healthy reasoning.
No less important is law enforcement. The National Police should continue to move quickly to investigate and hunt down hoax spreaders, those who pit one against the other, provocateurs and the masterminds. (AZYUMARDI AZRA, Culture and Humanities professor, Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University)
