By: Dodik Prasetyo *
Becoming the second presidential candidate, Prabowo seemed excited – eager to win the highest throne seat in Indonesia. The General Chairman of the Gerindra Party once again reminded his supporters to maintain the Voting Place (TPS). He seemed to be afraid of the ghost voters. Prabowo also asked all the success team volunteers to be prepared to guard the polling station, if necessary until the night.
According to him, the presidential election will greatly determine the fate of the nation. In his speech he also asked the volunteers to bring basket and mats, as well as picnics at the polling station. This was conveyed by Prabowo at Roemah Djoeang Headquarters, South Jakarta last January 13, 2019. Even though it was clear that the polling station was guarded not as a picnic destination. In this case, the question arises, is it less work? Or is there no confidence in Prabowo in the KPPS and KPU, asking the volunteers to “picnic” at the polling station.
Regarding the recommendation to stay at the polling station it was clear that it was troublesome, because what was needed was the presence of witnesses to guard the democratic party. Not inviting volunteers to stay overnight. The Jokowi challenger camp in the 2019 presidential election showed his fear of losing the presidential election, they realized that it would be difficult to win the people’s sympathy to defeat the incumbent presidential candidate Joko Widodo.
However, the assumption regarding fraud before the presidential election is not ethical. Because many eyes now supervise and monitor all processes and stages of elections. The community certainly has a stake in keeping the elections well organized, of course with the principles of direct, general, fair, free and confidential.
Prabowo seems afraid of the potential for fraud. He considered that TPS was a crucial place, which must be carefully guarded. He also said that maintaining polling stations was part of maintaining the people’s voice. Apart from guarding the polling station, the former Kopassus Danjen also asked the volunteers to work hard to win Prabowo – Sandi. If the lines are drawn, of course this is related to the hoaxes of 7 ballot containers that have been punched in Tanjung Priok. This gives the impression that there is a grand design that directs that the Election process is far from being honest and fair.
Since the beginning the government has always encouraged the General Election Commission (KPU) to work transparently and accountably. Since the registration until the appointment of the presidential and vice presidential candidates, the campaign was peaceful, until the current stage, everything was done well. Prabowo’s order for volunteers to stay at the polling station would certainly direct public opinion that the KPU seemed to have a tendency for one of the candidate pairs. Excesses of such statements can certainly cause noise.
In a number of speeches made by Prabowo, he looked like a war general who set the war strategy from inside the tent, but was reluctant to go to the field. This could be due to the despairing attitude of Gerindra cadres, where it was revealed the statement that Muzani, Secretary General of Gerindra felt beleaguered because the parties that had previously supported Prabowo in the 2014 presidential election now switched to supporting Jokowi. Even the regional heads who used to support Prabowo in 2014, now there are even those who support Jokowi, even the regional heads are from PKS, PAN and Democrats.
The problem finally made Prabowo seem to make a misstep and often made a blunder, as a result he began to comment strangely enough to ask his supporters to bring basket and mats to stay at the polling station. Prabowo is also considered to have made many blunders which are considered to have an effect on his electability in the fight for the 2019 presidential election. Only with the words of Boyolali, he was criticized by the Boyolali community and asked him to apologize to the Boyolali community.
Moreover, Prabowo – Sandiaga’s National Winning Body (BPN) did not seem to have a clear concept and strategy to win the 2019 presidential election. Prabowo-Sando’s party only carried out attacks without data and solutions to Joko Widodo’s government. Prabowo also rarely offers clear visions to the public, politicization efforts clad in religion such as reunion 212 seem to be a ride for him to gain votes.
Program coordination between the supporting party and Prabowo’s BPN – Sandi is also considered not solid, it can even be assessed without coordination at all. This can be seen from the issue of teacher salary of Rp. 20,000,000, which was stated by Mardani Ali, but this was immediately countered by Prabowo. Some supporting parties also began to square off the success of legislative elections compared to the presidential election. This is considered very reasonable because of their hopes for Prabowo’s electability – the password is declining.
Prabowo’s suggestion that the volunteers stay at the polling station also shows that he did not believe in the performance of the KPU and Bawaslu who had even worked hard long before the registration of the presidential candidates began. He should have realized that the 2019 Election was a party of democracy which was much highlighted by many eyes, the deployment of volunteers to stay at TPS was certainly something excessive. Though each candidate is only required to send witnesses, not for a picnic to bring a basket.
In this case, we also learned that in a panic situation, one can speak strange and tend to be of his own accord, besides that coordination of one command is also needed so that the public is not confused by different statements. The fact is that it deals only with matters of power and interests, a democratic party should be a reflection of the nation to get the ideal leader, not a leader who is crazy about power.
* The author is a Political Observer