Jakarta — Chairman of the Centra Initiative and Member of the Civil Society Coalition for Democratic Elections, Al Araf said that the contest for the upcoming 2024 Election is an event for competing programs.
The program offered by the prospective leaders must be for the betterment of the people. In fact, the election participants did not actually sell hatred, let alone to use issues of ethnicity, religion, race and intergroup (SARA).
Firmly, he explained that indeed the politicization of SARA must be eliminated in the upcoming 2024 elections.
The reason is, when this practice is still carried out it will certainly cause a sharp polarization in society and cause conflict.
Furthermore, according to Al Araf it is also very important for the neutrality of the apparatus as mandated by the Law (UU).
Because, when there are officials who are very visible in their partisanship in supporting certain candidates in the election, this violates the law.
“If there is partiality towards one candidate with support, then it is a form of violation of law and law, so it must be punished,” he said.
Regarding the neutrality of the apparatus, Al Araf then advised Bawaslu to increase its supervision.
He himself reflected on the running of elections in previous years where it turned out that there were still involvement of unscrupulous officials to openly support one of the election contestants.
According to him, the partisanship practice by the apparatus is indeed a pointless thing and actually weakens professionalism.
“Politically, there is no benefit from TNI soldiers or members of the National Police supporting one of the candidates because later if the candidate loses their position will be at stake,” said Al Araf
“So there is no benefit for members of the TNI and Polri to support one of the candidates because it will undermine their professionalism,” he said.
