Avoiding polarization in society will be able to prevent the possibility of an increase in radicalism, especially ahead of the General Election in 2024.
Narratives and arguments that have the potential to influence transnational ideology are often put forward by intolerant and radical groups in the public sphere. To be able to overcome this problem, it is very important to have the role of moderate religious groups.
This is because moderate religious groups must be able to provide counter-narratives that are able to target all groups, especially the younger generation, who are a generation that is looking for their identity and it is very easy to become indoctrinated or brainwashed by the many narratives that are created. by radical group propagandists.
In this regard, Peace Generation Co-founder, Irfan Amelee explained that the frequency of young people’s participation must be greatly increased and become more frequent. Because, algorithms that work in search engines on the internet or digital space will always prioritize things that are published a lot and frequently.
So, the amount of content to carry out the counter narrative itself should be much greater. Because if you think of it as a container, if you put just a drop of dye in it, then to be able to clean it again you need much more clear water than before so that the water in the container can become clear again.
However, problems continue to arise and become increasingly complex, because the characteristics of the young generation who will succeed the Indonesian nation are that they are often faced with various kinds of debates that are completely unproductive in cyberspace. As one example, there are debates about right or wrong, halal or haram, Pancasila or the Caliphate and so on, debates that are actually less productive.
From the momentum and because they have read about such a situation, it has actually been utilized very well by intolerant and radical groups so that they are able to continue tirelessly trying to portray as if Pancasila is a decline of the nation and the caliphate is the best solution.
Meanwhile, the Head of Special Detachment (Densus) 88, Marthinus Hokum, said that ahead of the implementation of the democratic party and political contestation in the General Election (Pemilu) in 2024, political tensions are indeed increasing and there is a phenomenon of polarization cases occurring in society. will further increase the potential for the spread of radical ideas so that terrorism continues to mushroom.
Moreover, when, for example, this narrative is accompanied by the practice of identity politics by deliberately promoting the partial identity of one of the candidates who wishes to advance in the election contestation. Because if this method continues to be used, there will be an identity war, because certain intolerant and radical parties will deliberately see and view other identity groups as being below their level or inferior and only their group being above and the most correct or become superior.
To be able to continue anticipating these various possibilities, Densus 88 itself has a very strong commitment to being able to analyze intelligence in order to prevent various groups who want to take advantage of the situation of political tension in Indonesia.
Densus 88 has adopted various principles and strategies so that they are able to carry out intelligence analysis. The first is from the existing database, then the second way is from the history of the existing Presidential Election (Pilpres). So the Special Detachment 88 emphasized that they would anticipate a number of figures who often used a lot of issues regarding identity politics and other issues which could actually trigger the emergence of radicalism and even terrorism.
Because in fact, the existence of a democratic party itself should be used purely to be able to elect the best leader, not to create polarization and division among the people of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI).
All elements of society from various circles and backgrounds should be able to avoid the partial use of identity, because if this practice continues to be carried out, it is certain that it will create further polarization in society. Of course, all of these things are the responsibility of all elements to be able to maintain them together.
As the 2024 General Election approaches, there will indeed be quite a significant increase in the understanding and spread of radicalism and terrorism. So one effective way and step to prevent this is to continue to create a conducive social security and social security situation and avoid anything that has the potential to cause polarization in society.
