By: Rizal Arifin *
The universe of cyberspace began to be filled with the #IndonesiaCallObserver fence sign that was continuously boosted by the buzzers and sympathizers of the opposition camp. Even the hashtag had become a trending topic in Indonesia. This is certainly not without reason, the hashtag was allegedly an attempt to seek international attention, so that it seemed as if the implementation of elections in Indonesia was full of fraud.
This narration from the faction 02 was due to their belief in Prabowo’s electability being able to overtake Petahana presidential candidate Joko Widodo in their internal survey. Though many other surveys and even surveys from Australia also show that Paslon 01 is still superior to the challengers.
Hidayat Nur Wahid as the frontman of the tagar assessed that so far the election observers from within the country still had doubts about their courage and objectivity in monitoring the process of holding elections. But there is something that is a blunder for the faction 02, of course it is not surprising if the camp 02 often blunders in launching its political strategy.
The first is the hashtag that they use using the INA acronym for the #INAelectionObserverSOS hashtag, this is clearly wrong, because the abbreviation is an international abbreviation for the country of Indonesia in sports events. There should be two international abbreviations used, namely ID or IDN for 3 letters. The international world will not even understand the intentions of the volunteer hashtag volunteers, they may laugh at the fact that the hashtag is expected to call observers for sporting events or Olympic preparations.
The KPU itself said there would be observers from abroad who were present at the Presidential Election later. This is in accordance with the law, so there is no need to shout for foreign monitors to come, because they have been officially invited. This certainly shows that Prabowo’s – Sandi’s stronghold does not understand at all about the rules of the election. Because they don’t know the path, shout them with #IndonesiaCallObserver and #INAelectionObserverSOS tags.
Pramono Ubaid Tanthowi as KPU Commissioner said that in this 2019 election the institution had invited 33 countries, as well as 33 embassy representatives from friendly countries and 11 international monitoring institutions. Well, the international world is ready to be a witness, who will win the April 17 presidential election.
Actions such as shouting in social media about fraud, will certainly show that they are trying to delegitimize democracy in Indonesia and even undermine the dignity of their country at the same time. This can be likened to revealing the dilapidation of this country and then asking foreign parties to intervene. Or don’t – don’t this be the result of the foreign consultant he uses? Even though they often chanted anti-foreigners, but their ends seemed to ask that foreign parties intervene in monitoring the election.
When a nation / state requests foreign / international assistance to monitor and supervise, it may be seriously responded to by the UN. The implication is that the United Nations will bring all its tools to participate in the affairs of the Indonesian state. Bawaslu has stated that there are only two accredited foreign monitoring institutions in Bawaslu, the Asia Democracy Network and the Asian Network For Free Elections. And for foreign election monitoring institutions wishing to be involved in monitoring must meet the conditions determined by the Election and Election Law.
Election monitors must show an independent nature, but there are also those who claim to be independent who turn out to be ‘partisan’, as a venue for discourse in the context of winning elections. However, such election monitoring institutions will be expelled by themselves from the field of interaction of democratic contestation discourse, if their performance deviates from its rules as an independent election observer, and is incompetent in promoting public accountability.
In fact, we do not need to launch the hashtags that are prone to typos so that monitors from abroad come to monitor the elections in Indonesia. KPU as an independent organizing institution certainly has rules regarding this matter. Ahead of the Election, of course people must be able to refrain from creating provocation and pessimism in the virtual world.
* The author is an observer of social and political problems