By: Farrell Haroon Jabar )*
Religious leaders have a very important role to play in helping to prevent the possibility or potential for friction in society horizontally, especially when facing a political year like today, where conditions are becoming increasingly heated by the many issues circulating in society.
Ahead of the democratic party and political contestation, namely the General Election (Pemilu) which will be held on the upcoming 14 February 2024, a number of figures have begun to advise the public to be able to continue to increase their caution and also be far more capable of having a mature mindset, especially is in selecting leaders.
Regarding this matter, a religious figure or religious leader who is also chairman of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) of West Bandung Regency (KBB), KH Muhammad Ridwan said that the friction that had occurred in Indonesia when carrying out elections in the previous period, namely in 2014 and 2019 had to be serve as a reference and evaluation material.
How could it not be, the article is that there was a general election democratic party in that period, it can be said that there was quite strong polarization among the people in the country, with the splitting of society into 2 (two) large camps, so that from that case, it became very important for all party that national unity must still be above all else.
Therefore, the people themselves must also be able to reflect and evaluate themselves from how the political contestation took place in 2014 and 2019, so that with that, the community should be able to restrain themselves more and not obey their ego, especially in the coming political year. , that is, in 2024.
The hustle and bustle of the 2024 Election contestation itself is starting to get more and more felt here and also the political scene is getting hotter with the many issues circulating in society, especially those issues originating and spreading through social media and the internet.
Of course, with so many issues that may have the potential to divide and threaten the unity of the people of the country, the great hope for continuing to maintain national harmony lies in the hands of the people themselves. So that all layers of society everywhere, including those in the regions and cities, must be more careful and mature in their mindset, especially when facing this increasingly heated political commotion.
In fact, all political parties are good, because of course they have certain mechanisms and cadres, which also aim for the good of the nation and the people themselves with the ideology they promote. Of course, all political parties really want people’s welfare to increase and so on.
Not only political parties, of course all the candidates they are running to be able to run and take part in the 2024 Election are also very good people or cadres from their parties and are considered to be competent people to be able to carry out the mandate of this position.
By having such a perspective, that changing all bad prejudices for good ones and agreeing that all political parties and all candidates participating in the General Election who are currently contesting are also good people, then at least the public will not be easily swayed by certain issues circulating. on social media.
When good prejudice continues to be echoed, then automatically too, people can be much more able to self-reflect and see what has happened before, including any mistakes that might have been made in the previous political period, especially in 2024 and 2019, would never have happened. repeated and past mistakes can be left behind.
It can be seen that in the 2014 and 2019 election periods, it can be said that not a few people have been consumed by a number of issues circulating on social media and the internet so that polarization cannot be avoided anymore, including many people who provide support to one of the political parties (political parties) and also one particular leader candidate with such fanaticism that it automatically creates hatred for the opponent of the candidate leader they support.
Instead of continuing to dwell on the bad things, it would be much better if the good things could be continued by leaving some of the shortcomings in the election event of the previous year. It is also important for all people not to vilify or humiliate other people just for the sake of political interests.
Indeed, Indonesia is a country that upholds the principles of democracy in running its government, including that which underlies elections, in which the next leader is determined directly by the people. So with the existence of democracy, of course it must also be considered normal if between one and another individuals have different political choices from one another. With this awareness, it will be able to prevent friction in political years, in which the role of continuing to remind each other is also important, especially carried out by certain community leaders such as religious leaders.
)* The author is a contributor to Nusantara Reading Room
