Guarding Honest and Fair Elections, the Community Must Be Wary of Efforts to Divide the Nation
By: Ahmad Dzul Ilmi Muis
All Indonesian people must increase their vigilance in an effort to prevent provocation and possible division of the nation which continues to be intensified by a handful of irresponsible groups. Not only that, in the context of the 2024 General Election, the public must also be able to oversee the running of the democratic party so that it is full of honesty and justice.
It cannot be denied that the existence of definitive supervision to make political contestations a success really requires the involvement of all elements of society, including community organizations (ormas), women leaders, including the disability community.
In an effort to increase awareness and also participatory monitoring efforts, the General Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) has also continuously made efforts to collaborate and embrace the entire community to be able to participate in carrying out supervision.
The public is expected to be able to come forward and have the courage to report alleged violations in the 2024 Election to Bawaslu directly if they feel they have discovered fraud or anything suspicious during the ongoing democratic party process. By reporting and involving citizens, a General Election will be realized that upholds the principles of direct, general, free, confidential, honest and fair (Luber and Jurdil).
Regarding this matter, academic from Dipenogeroro University (Undip), Nur Hidayat Sardini conveyed to the entire community that the functioning of democracy is of course very important to have control from all elements of society, because it is impossible for democracy to run well without participatory control from citizens.
Therefore, the involvement of all levels of society in ensuring that the principles of democracy continue to be upheld in order to realize honest and fair elections is something that is absolute or mandatory.
Apart from that, Bawaslu as the body that ensures the quality of the implementation of the General Election also has a very big responsibility to be able to maintain and continue to ensure that the quality of the democratic party in Indonesia becomes even better, one way is to increase the internal capacity of all supervisors and invite involvement community to monitor political contestation.
One thing that needs to be emphasized in a country that adheres to democratic principles is that differences in choices or views in politics, especially regarding the implementation of the 2024 elections, are a very normal and commonplace thing. Therefore, society should not fall into the trap and become even more divided.
The community must also be at the forefront to ensure that all parties, including election participants, are able to continue to advocate for a peaceful general election that can embrace all parties.
Don’t let the spread of slander and hoaxes or fake news continue to spread on various social media. All elements should be able to oversee and make the democratic party truly a ‘party’ that can make everyone happy.
Politeness must also continue to be upheld, as a country that continues to adhere to eastern customs, Indonesia cannot be separated from its culture of politeness. This also includes, there should be no use of identity politics that touches on sensitive issues such as SARA (ethnicity, religion, race and inter-group).
The potential for polarization or division of the nation will actually be minimized by increasing the active role of the young generation of the nation’s successors, whose numbers are indeed very massive in the 2024 General Election this time, for this reason, the existence of good political education and literacy makes them more active and educated in the field. the public including in the digital space.
The General Chairperson of the Love of Nation Community Forum (FMCB), Sayuti also reminded that the most important thing in the General Election is not who wins or is elected later, but there is something much more important than that, namely ensuring that there are differences in political choices among society. does not divide citizens.
The experience of the General Election and Pilkada several years ago in Indonesia should be used as an example of national and state life which has been damaged because of the use of SARA issues which is far more dominant than using political ideas and visions and missions.
Because polarization is clearly very detrimental to all Indonesian society, even harmony between families can be torn apart just because of differences in views or political choices. Therefore, people should not be too fanatical in politics because this will make it difficult to think clearly.
Therefore, mature behavior in politics is very important to continue to promote from the start. All election contestations must be able to run elegantly and prioritize the principle of competing ideas and opinions, not just sentiments. Monitoring elections so that they are honest and fair is also important, so the public must increase awareness of the efforts of a handful of parties to continue to divide this nation.
The author is an alumni of Fisip Unair
