Socialization of the Presidential Candidates Has Been Canceled, is not KPU Fault.

By: Mita Anggraini *

Indonesian Public Institute had regretted the attitude of the General Election Commission (KPU) which canceled facilitating the delivery of the vision and mission of the 2019 presidential and vice presidential candidate pair. The KPU canceled the socialization of the vision – mission and the Presidential Candidates – Cawapres program on January 9, 2018, because there was no agreement between Jokowi’s party – Ma’ruf Amin and Prabowo – Sandi. Chairman of the KPU Arief Budiman also invited the candidate pairs to carry out as much socialization as possible, before the debate between the presidential and vice presidential candidates on January 17, 2019.

In Law No. 7 of 2017 concerning General Elections, it states that the presentation of the presidential mission vision is a form of a campaign as well as campaign material itself. Although the socialization of the vision and mission is canceled, the KPU will still socialize the vision and mission of the presidential candidate, one of them is by advertising the vision and mission through the television station. In Law No. 7 of 2017 concerning General Elections (Elections), KPU is indeed obliged to disseminate campaign material including the vision, mission, and program of the candidate pairs through the official website of the KPU and public broadcasting institutions.

KPU Chairman Arief Budiman previously said that the delivery of the vision and mission was not facilitated, because of the different desires of the Jokowi and Prabowo presidential candidate teams. If there is an assumption that the KPU violates the law or not, clearly this certainly cannot be justified. Previously, the KPU had invited the campaign team of the presidential and vice-presidential candidates to disseminate their vision and mission, given that there was no agreement between the two candidates regarding the socialization activities to be held in January 2019.
The KPU is quite troublesome in facilitating the socialization if the two candidate pairs have different desires. So, the valley decided, that the socialization of vision and mission could be done by each candidate pair.
The KPU’s decision not to facilitate the dissemination of vision and mission was also not meaningful without reason, this was done because the two candidate teams did not find a point of agreement related to the figure who would read the vision and mission.

Previously the Jokowi-Ma’ruf National Campaign Team (TKN) requested that the reading of the vision and mission be represented by the Timses to be effective. While the National Winning Body (BPN) Prabowo – Sandi insisted that the readings be carried out by both the presidential and vice presidential candidates. Aside from the KPU, it was difficult to facilitate the wishes of the two different campaign teams, the KPU had also held a meeting several times, the discussion on the plan for disseminating the vision and mission of the presidential and vice presidential candidates had never come to any light. In this case, the KPU is legitimate, it does not facilitate the delivery of the vision and mission, because in this modern era, certainly Timses from each candidate will be easier to socialize the work program and the vision and mission in various media.

With this, of course we cannot judge that the KPU intervened in the cancellation of the vision and mission delivery, in this case the KPU had its own way so that the KPU’s performance remained focused on the work program, rather than continuously serving the striking differences between Prabowo’s supporters and Jokowi’s supporters are related to the procedures for delivering the vision and vice presidential vision and mission. The Secretary of TKN Jokowi – Man’ruf stressed that TKN would socialize every day in its own way. He also explained that later, Jokowi – Ma’ruf would also deliver the vision and mission during the first debate.

Candidate for Vice President No. 2, Sandiaga Uno acknowledged that the cancellation of the presentation of the vision and mission facilitated by the KPU was a joint decision so it was not appropriate to say the KPU had committed a violation. Even so, it is not too late to present it. Jokowi was hailed by his presentation regarding Nawacita. While Prabowo criticized constructively a work program that was less than the maximum from the government and proposed concrete solutions.

There is still about 2.5 months for the community to observe and assess the vision, mission and work program of each candidate pair. With various sources of information available, the community certainly can access it. However, there are members of Prabowo who report the KPU to the Election Organizers Honor Council (DKPP) because they are considered to violate the law and according to them the KPU failed.

This is certainly a ridiculous thing, because the KPU did not make the decision to cancel it itself. However, with representatives from TKN – Jokowi and BNP – Prabowo Subianto. On the basis of an agreement from both parties, in fact, the KPU is not worthy of blame, let alone get blasphemy. But we also have to imagine if there are two desires that must be facilitated, what happens? This certainly will raise a statement that the KPU is not firm.
Whereas it is clear in the law, that the KPU is not obliged to facilitate the delivery of vision and mission at the debate because actually the community should be able to access from various sources and of course it can be a consideration in determining their choice.
Each successful team will only waste time if they continue to protest to the KPU. Instead of protesting, it would be better if the two Timses continued to campaign for something good, without hoaxes or incitement that blamed certain people. The organizers have worked extra hard for the success of this five-year democracy celebration. The clock continues to spin without being able to restore time in the past. On the D-Day, all eyes from all over the archipelago to the world are focused on the political events in this country. Let us guard together so that it can be carried out safely and peacefully.

Each successful team will only waste time if they continue to protest to the KPU. Instead of protesting, it would be better if the two Timses continued to campaign for something good, without hoaxes or incitement that blamed certain people. The organizers have worked extra hard for the success of this five-year democracy celebration. The clock continues to spin without being able to restore time in the past. On the D-Day, all eyes from all over the archipelago to the world are focused on the political events in this country. Let us guard together so that it can be carried out safely and peacefully.

• The author is a PTS student in Yogyakarta