By: Rian Maulana *
Volunteers of Jokowi-Ma’ruf Amin’s supporters say that the victory of Jokowi-Ma’ruf in the Banten region is not easy. This is because in the previous presidential election, Jokowi had lost in the Banten region.
Like the European Football Club Competition
The Banten Work House, which is the base of volunteers for Jokowi-Maufuf supporters in the Banten region, explained that to win Jokowi-Ma’ruf in Banten, the struggle was quite difficult. Like a football match between top European clubs because both camps have the same strong support base in Banten. Moreover, according to an internal survey, both Jokowi-Ma’ruf and Prabowo-Sandi are quite balanced in Banten.
That is why volunteer groups supporting Joko Widodo-Ma’ruf Amin (Bravo-5) asked Banten residents not to abstain. Bravo-5 also invited Banten residents to win the Jokowi-Maufuf pair. What’s more, Maufuf is a Bantenese citizen, it is a pity that his fellow Bantenese do not choose his local son.
Maximize the Campaign in Banten
In order to encourage a rise in votes in the Banten region, presidential candidate Joko Widodo plans to maximize the remaining time of the campaign for 3 weeks to win in Banten. He does not want to only get a balanced voice, but hopes to win in Banten. Meanwhile, support for this number 1 partner is getting stronger in the Banten region.
If previously lost, now it’s balanced. Even Joko Widodo targets to achieve victory nationally with a figure of 58-62 percent in the Banten region. Meanwhile in other regions such as Yogyakarta, Jokowi targets to achieve a landslide victory of up to 70%.
Whereas in Banyuwangi, Jokowi targets sound votes of up to 65%. According to the results of the national survey, Jokowi-Ma’ruf still leads with a range above 50%. That means, there are still many Indonesian people who still trust prospective incumbents to continue the government.
Jokowi-Ma’ruf himself started an open campaign for the 2019 presidential election on Sunday, March 24, 2019. Banten was chosen as the location of an open campaign to increase electability in the region. Until now, in Banten and West Java, Jokowi-Ma’ruf’s electability is still considered to be under Prabowo-Sandi. Based on the results of the Kompas survey, Prabowo-Sandi still excels at a percentage of 47.7%, while Jokowi-Ma’ruf is around 42.1%.
The increase in the percentage of Jokowi voters in the survey results shows that there is increasing support for the number 1 candidate pair. Jokowi’s electability is expected to increase further considering the increasing number of young people participating in the presidential election this time. A dynamic and literate generation of young people is considered to be very effective as an agent of change so that it is not easy to incite hoaxes and other incitement.
In the open campaign in Banten, the Jokowi and Maufuf pairs were present along with all the leaders of the coalition parties. The grand parade was held at the Maulana Yusuf Gymnasium, Ciceri, Serang. After Banten, Jokowi-Ma’ruf will continue the open campaign in Banyuwangi, Jember, Banda Aceh, Riau until Papua is then closed in Jakarta.
Reject Campaign at the Mosque
Meanwhile, during the open campaign period, the Masjid Masjid Indonesia (Prima DMI) Youth Association called on the volunteers or campaign teams of the two presidential and vice-presidential candidates not to campaign at the mosque. For that Prima DMI will monitor campaign activities in all mosques and prayer rooms during the campaign period or starting from March 24, 2019 to April 17, 2019. The monitoring activities include three things: taklim supervision, Friday sermons and recitation.
The monitoring by Prima DMI is intended to ensure that mosques and places of worship are free from campaign activities ahead of the 2019 election. However, there are some parties who consider the monitoring plan by Prima DMI to trigger conflict. This is because monitoring of campaign activities is not the Prima realm of the DMI but the domain of Bawaslu.
Actually, talking about politics in a mosque is not something that is prohibited as long as it does not invite people to side with one partner. If you only provide political education, such as reminding people to take advantage of their voting rights and not abstain in the election, it really doesn’t matter. The KPU itself has set a ban on campaigns in places of worship, government agencies and educational institutions for anyone. However, it would be nice if the monitoring of campaign activities in the mosque was carried out in coordination with the Bawaslu first. This is important in order to avoid friction that might arise from which disagreements include campaign activities and which activities are ordinary political education.
* The author is an alumni of Andalas University