By: Gani Permata *
The voting for the 2019 Concurrent Election will still take another three months. However, political tension in various regions has heated up, and the effect is felt up to the community at the village level. This is reflected in the demolition and removal of two tombs in Gorontalo Province, precisely in the village of South Toto, Bone Bolango Regency, due to different choices in the upcoming legislative elections.
The two tombs that were moved were the tomb of the late Masri Dunggio, who had been buried 26 years ago, and the late Siti Aisya Hamzah, who was only buried in the backyard of a citizen named Awano Hasan.
The transfer of the tomb was triggered by Awano’s invitation to Abdul Salam Pomontolo’s family to elect a legislative candidate according to his direction. But Abdul Salam and his family refused on the grounds that they had a choice.
“The trigger is language‘ if you don’t choose, there are dead people who can’t be buried here. Masri’s grave must be moved. ‘ Even those who have the grave are still cousins with the deceased, “Abdul Salam said.
Later it was discovered that the land owner was the brother-in-law of the Bone Bolango DPRD Candidate carried by the NasDem Party, namely Iriani Manoarfa. Iriani, who did not know about the problem, regretted her name as being related to the transfer of the tomb.
“I was very disadvantaged. I have nothing to do with the case yesterday, surprised to also see news in various media. I don’t know at all, “Iriani said.
The NasDem Party also emphasized that it was not related to the transfer of two tombs that occurred in Toto Village. Chairman of the DPW NasDem Party, Hamim Pou said he was concerned about the incident. However, viral reporting in the media seemed to corner the NasDem party. He said his party would consider taking legal steps for the defamation that occurred.
“Note if anyone mentions and connects this family problem with our NasDem party, we will process it legally. Today we did not mention names, but we have gone along. Let’s do politic that is polite, smart, cultured, civilized and dignified,” hope Hamim.
The different choices that triggered the transfer of the tomb have been mediated by village officials and the police. The head of South Toto Village, Taufik Baladraf, said the problem arose around December 2018 and the families of the dispute or problem had been invited to mediate. Because there was no meeting point, finally the demolition and removal of the tomb was still carried out.
The events that took place in Gorontalo again reminded us of what happened in the 2017 DKI Regional Election, where parties who did not elect the governor of the faith were threatened not to be taken care of or buried by their bodies. This shows that the community is not yet mature in addressing political differences. Although sometimes, political immaturity is also shown by eilte’s behavior which is then imitated by ordinary people. Therefore, people are always asked to be wise in responding to any problems or information.
Simultaneous Election 2019 should be a place for clean and healthy democracy in order to elect representatives and leaders of the country. Although different political choices, do not let the supporters of each camp drop each other to damage the kinship and family relations. Differences and diversity must be maintained, because that is what unites Indonesia.
* The Author is a Student at the University of Persada Indonesia