By: Mirah Sanjiwani *
Hoax information seems to be attached to the person of the presidential candidate number 01, Prabowo Subianto. His track record has proven that. One by one, Prabowo Subianto’s lies began to be revealed to the public. One of them is related to the release of Indonesian Migrant Workers (TKI) from NTT, Wilfrida Shoik, which is threatened by the death penalty, which Prabowo calls ‘his work’.
This unilateral claim has also been denied by Migrant Care, an organization that focuses on migrant worker advocacy. The organization concerned with TKI advocacy denied the unilateral claim from Prabowo which stated that he was instrumental in freeing Wilfrida TKI. Anis Hidayah from Migrant Care confirmed that the advocacy process against Wilfrida began in December 2010 by Migrant Care, when Wilfrida was arrested by police in Kelantan, Malaysia. Alex Wong, a Malaysian activist living in the city, began a defense effort against Wilfrida.
Anis explained, the defense effort against Wilfrida, known at that time was still underage, actually began in the DPR RI by opening wide public awareness about the existence of these problems. And Prabowo Subianto or member of his party faction, the Gerindra Party faction was totally not involved and wanted to know. The press conference at the Republic of Indonesia Parliament Building was facilitated by members of the PDIP faction, Rieke Diah Pitaloka and members of the NTD’s DPD RI, Lerry Mboik.
The PDIP faction’s support for Migrant Care’s efforts continued when the Deputy Speaker of the Indonesian Parliament Pramono Anung wrote a letter to the Malaysian Government, as a follow-up to the mobilization of community petitions for the release of Wilfrida in September 2013.
When the news skyrocketed, Prabowo then entered with the contribution of adding a lawyer to the legal team that had been provided by the Indonesian Embassy in Malaysia.
In 2014, Migraint Care protested Prabowo’s efforts to make Wilfrida a campaign campaign for pencapresan until the plan was used as compensation for Prabowo’s poor vision and mission from the issue of protection of migrant workers.
When compared with Prabowo, the agenda of the protection of migrant workers offered by Jokowi is more comprehensive and realistic. Jokowi’s side saw the phenomenon of migration as a reality that must be answered with specific policies regarding the governance of migration and the support of foreign policy oriented towards the protection of citizens. While the Prabowo side only looked at the classical pull analysis and push poverty factors so the solution was more on the macroeconomic approach.
Communities can assess the quality of leaders from their ideas and vision and mission. If it is substantive, it is appropriate to be chosen. However, if only coarse without logic and data, it should be ignored. The people are getting smarter to be fooled with hoaxes without data. If you want to get people’s sympathy, work and prove it with achievements, don’t just spread fiction.
* The Author is a Student at Jagakarsa University