By : Ahmad Harris * )
2019 becomes a national political arena that seizes the attention of the public, from young children, adolescents, adults to advanced children. Because the year 2019 is a moment for the President of Indonesia for the period 2019-2024. What is certain, each of which has different tastes and choices, starts working until each becomes a part of the community. Maybe, people in the adult category and from time to time give awards to everyone who can have a positive impact on the nation’s recovery. However, the society with the adolescent category, or who is now known as the millennial generation, will certainly choose leaders who are able to attract attention and be able to take sympathy from the millennials.
The millennials cannot be underestimated by the two sides, both President Joko Widodo and the Gerindra Party Chief Prabowo Subianto. According to Saiful Mujani from Research Consulting (SMRC), around 34.4% of Indonesian people are in the general range of millennial generations, namely 17-34 years. If you look at the temporary position, according to the CEO of Alvara Research Center Hasanuddin Ali, the Jokowi couple – KH Ma’ruf Amin managed to win sympathy from millennials with a vote of around 52%. Meanwhile, Prabowo’s partner – Sandiaga only received a vote of around 40.1%.
Although the Prabowo pair often carries Sandiaga Uno as a close figure to millennials, in fact the pair’s vote acquisition is not satisfactory. There are a number of things that might be the reason why the Prabowo pair seems to be lagging behind in the temporary vote of the Millennials. First, Sandiaga Uno only looks close to millennials physically. As a representative of Prabowo in the 2019 Presidential Election political contest, Sandiaga Uno is often associated with a pro-millennial figure. When viewed from the physical and appearance, Sandiaga Uno does tend to be in accordance with and have closeness to the millennials. Unfortunately, the behavior is not so. Not infrequently Sandiaga Uno, actually became a figure who was quite humorous when faced with the public. One of them, during a campaign at Sukawelang Terminal Market, where Sandiaga Uno placed a petai on his head.
Sandiaga Uno’s behavior did tend to be humorous at the time and favored by various parties, but millennials saw this behavior not as something of interest. Millennials today, tend to like to look at a quiet person and behave “cool” as a teenager at his age. Maybe, one of Jokowi’s actions that was able to attract the attention of millennials was his hobby in riding an eccentric motorcycle. In fact, on the streets today, we can see millennials following the behavior of President Jokowi who looked “cool” in the eyes of the millennial generation in general. When compared with Prabowo, of course, from style and appearance, millennials can judge which ones can attract their hearts. Not infrequently we see Prabowo always appearing monotonous during the campaign using safari clothes and black peci. Of course, when campaigning for millennials, Prabowo could not win the hearts of the teenagers. Maybe, even millennials will see Prabowo as a boring and old-fashioned figure.
On the other hand, the factor that might cause Prabowo to lose support from millennials was the campaign methods of the Prabowo pair. Millennials are known as practical people and do not want to be involved in small talk too long. In the campaign, the Prabowo pair tends to be monotonous in conveying developing issues. Unfortunately, millennials don’t see the campaign as a practical thing that can be used to bring the country to a better direction. On the contrary, millennials who saw Jokowi’s campaign with various developments considered that Jokowi’s efforts were a concrete step to make changes for the Indonesian people. This seems to be the differentiator of the two Indonesian Presidential candidates for the period 2019 – 2024. If the Prabowo – Sandiaga Uno pair wants to obtain a millennial vote in the 2019 Election, certainly they need to evaluate so that in the next campaign period, they can provide practical and concrete things to be presented to millennials.
*) The Author is FISIP students at the Dharma Agung University