The people’s democratic party, the 2024 Election is just around the corner, various efforts and policies have been carried out to realize a safe and peaceful implementation of the 2024 Election. Elections are an important moment for Indonesian democracy. Because, through elections the Indonesian people will determine the nation’s leaders who can bring Indonesia to progress and prosperity.
However, it cannot be denied that election contestation has also become an arena for the spread of hoaxes and hate speech, especially those aimed at bringing down political opponents. This could certainly threaten the peace and conduciveness of the 2024 elections.
At the opening of the National Election Organizer Coordination Meeting, at the Grand Sahid Jaya Hotel, Jakarta, President Joko Widodo emphasized that the 2024 Election is the largest democratic party ever held, from Aceh to Papua, from all provinces, districts and cities there are 840 thousand polling places (TPS). The size of the democratic party that will be held makes the challenges that will be faced even greater. For this reason, governance, distribution mechanisms and election security must be accountable and have integrity.
In this way, quality, peaceful and cool political contestation will be realized, without hoaxes or hate speech. So that the 2024 election can produce the best solutions to various national problems. President Joko Widodo also advised election organizers to have the courage to strictly control and monitor possible irregularities during the election implementation process.
In line with President Joko Widodo, Vice President Ma’ruf Amin also advised all elements of the nation to be able to realize a mature democracy. A mature democracy is a democracy that prioritizes ideas and is based on the values of Pancasila. And it is a normal thing that when an election contest approaches, the political temperature will warm up. This is an indication of the dynamics of democracy.
Ma’ruf Amin said that the maturation of democracy can be done, among other things, by providing literacy and good political education to the community. The development of democracy should also be a collective commitment that is able to embrace the diversity of the nation’s citizens. In this way, active citizen participation as a marker of democratic maturity will also continue to increase.
The voter participation rate of 81.93% in 2019 is expected to increase in the 2024 elections. Therefore, Vice President Ma’ruf Amin asked all elements of society to avoid three crucial issues that will hinder the process of improving the quality and maturing of democracy in Indonesia. First, the spread of hoaxes, hate speech and disinformation regarding the election. Then, identity politics and money politics. Then Ma’ruf Amin also added that a better democratic process would bring progress to the nation in the future.
To create safe and peaceful elections, all elements of society must be involved in realizing quality general elections in 2024. The campaign period must be free from hoaxes or fake news, SARA and hate speech, as well as identity politics and money politics. Meanwhile, political elites, especially election contestants, must be able to convey positive ideas and compete for ideas or concepts that are useful for building progress and welfare of the people. Don’t let this five-yearly democratic party become an arena for spreading lies and hatred.
Technological developments in the digital era have also influenced the course of the 2024 elections, because they have encouraged access and dissemination of information to be unlimited and uncontrolled. As a result, many people accidentally spread fake news because of misinformation, giving rise to hate speech. For this reason, ahead of the 2024 election campaign period, all elements of society are advised to be extra vigilant against the spread of hoax content, especially through social media, which is designed to bring down each other’s election participants.
Adaptation for social media users is also important, so that people do not make mistakes when using information technology as it is today, including through digital literacy intelligence. With this literacy intelligence, society will be better able to filter which information is true and worthy of trust, and which information is hoax and misleading and needs to be eliminated. Therefore, it is important for society to continue to improve digital literacy as an effort to ward off hoaxes.
Chairman of the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) Rahmat Bagja also said that digital literacy would enable the public, especially voters, to get information correctly and not be misleading. Digital literacy is important to ensure that people can digest and filter information that is too much and tends to be misleading. In this way, novice voters will be able to choose well whoever their chosen leader is. All parties hope that the 2024 elections can run well, honestly, fairly, directly, publicly, freely and secretly, in accordance with democratic principles. Even though political competition is fierce, society does not sacrifice unity and space for reason. For this reason, the government continues to urge the public to actively participate in the success of holding the 2024 elections. Elections as a means of national integration are a very important political moment. For this reason, the 2024 election must not cause divisions, so that it can produce quality leaders.
