By: Ahmad Harris *
President Jokowi’s decision to elect Kyai Ma’ruf Amin as his representative reap a reaction in the community. Although a number of parties supported, in fact some others regretted the decision. Various opinions were raised as reasons for disagreement with the election of Kyai Ma’ruf Amin, especially regarding age. Some people think Ma’ruf Amin will not be able to lead well given his age. Age problems which were finally exploited by the challengers to reduce support for Jokowi-Kyai Ma’ruf Amin.
Various memes and writings were distributed on social media to convince the public not to vote for Kyai Ma’ruf Amin. In an article, Kyai Ma’ruf Amin was once mentioned as a senile person who could not even remember his sandals after Friday Prayer. The article seems to be one of the bad engineering used by the opposition. In fact, Kyai Ma’ruf Amin with the age of 75 years, until now still has sharp memories. In addition, Kyai Ma’ruf Amin is also still healthy and does not have a serious illness. If compared, Kyai Ma’ruf Amin is even 1 year younger than Vice President Jusuf Kalla. However, Jusuf Kalla seems to have never been hit by the issue of age during the 2014 election.
Kyai Ma’ruf Amin is indeed not a young person anymore. However, the problem of age is not a problem as long as he is able to contribute and serve the country. I saw Kyai Ma’ruf Amin not an old figure, but a very mature figure. Maturity of thinking, behaving and speech said strongly shows that Kyai Ma’ruf Amin is the most mature person compared to political figures whose work only spreads provocation and hatred. If faced with two choices, namely adult Ulama with childish political figures, then I will confidently choose an adult Ulama without having to think twice.
The figure of Kyai Ma’ruf Amin is key in the 2019 Presidential Election. Not only the key to President Jokowi’s camp but also to Indonesia. The presence of Kyai Ma’ruf Amin on Jokowi’s side will neutralize identity politics echoed by the opposition. It can be said, the role of Kyai Ma’ruf Amin in the 2019 Presidential Election is conditioning in the midst of the heat of lies narratives built by the opposition. If the opposition is analogous to the fire that burned Indonesia, then it can be said that the Kyai Ma’ruf Amin is present as water that extinguishes the fire.
Responding, the opposition faction certainly did not want the fire that had been built to reduce support for Jokowi to be extinguished by the figure of Kyai Ma’ruf Amin. Therefore, the opposition will continue to attack the Kyai Ma’ruf Amin with cheap provocative narratives. In fact, the opposition faction once built an opinion that the Kyai Ma’ruf Amin as an Ulama who was thirsty for power. Through the provocation narrative, the community needs to be more rational in choosing parties, whether the opposition faction that continues to burn Indonesia with a narrative of lies or even Kyai Ma’ruf Amin who brings coolness with polite speech. If you do not want Indonesia to be trapped in the heat of lies, then you know who to choose.
*) FIFIP student at the University of Dharma Agung