The 2024 elections are in sight and people are asked to create peaceful elections. Don’t let differences in party and presidential candidate choices ruin brotherhood. Indonesia is a democratic country. So, differences are commonplace and need not be exaggerated to the point of destroying peace in this country.
Election is a grand event that is held every 5 years and the people are waiting for it with enthusiasm, because they want to get a new leader candidate. Since the reform era, Indonesian citizens have been freed to choose their own presidential candidate, not like they used to vote for a particular party. Elections are thrilling events because the results can be beyond predictions.
Tuan Guru Bajang (TGB) politician Dr Muhammad Zainul Majdi warned to be careful ahead of the 2024 political party. He hopes that national brotherhood can be maintained. The political period during elections and regional elections often damages interpersonal relationships due to differences in choices. Dr. TGB Zainul Majdi cautioned against this.
TGB continued, don’t let the competition above tear into the most essential ukhuwah network, namely brotherhood as fellow nations. In that sense, elections should not destroy brotherhood. Do not let the differences that exist can damage personal relationships between individuals or groups forever.
People must remember that Indonesia stands on differences and there is a teaching of ‘Unity in Diversity’, different but one. Differences have existed since the time before independence. It shouldn’t be questioned and exaggerated and make the election hot by insulting different presidential candidates.
Indonesia is a democratic country. People need to understand it and realize that differences are beautiful. Even though they have different political views and supported presidential candidates, that doesn’t mean they can insult each other. They must realize that insults can damage relationships and are very detrimental, because they cannot work together again in the future.
Moreover, the public also remembers that now there is an ITE Law. When social media is used as a place to insult each other between presidential candidates and parties, then apart from destroying brotherhood it is also self-destructive. The insult can be caught in the ITE Law and jailed for making hate speeches and insulting certain politicians during elections.
The community plays a major role in creating peaceful elections and supports the government, KPU and all other parties. Peace must be maintained so that elections can take place smoothly without any riots or even bloodshed. Therefore peace must be maintained by respecting each other’s political choices, even though they are different.
Meanwhile, Acting Mayor of Yogyakarta Sumadi asked all residents of the City of Yogyakarta to cooperate in creating a peaceful 2024 Election. He hopes that the 2024 election will not be colored by religious politics, SARA and money politics. The government is trying to create safe and comfortable conditions when holding the 2023-2024 elections. Democratic parties will avoid money politics, hoax information, and voter participation as desired.
In a sense, ahead of the general election, people must create peace by avoiding hoaxes. The reason is because the influence of hoaxes is very large and can mislead people’s minds, especially those who are still lay people. If there is an election hoax, it will be very detrimental and make the central government and regional governments dizzy, because the public will make false accusations.
The hoax about the election that has been circulating for several months is the issue of a 3-term president. This was strongly denied by President Jokowi because he did not want to be re-elected. The public needs to be aware that this hoax is very misleading and the government continues to enforce the rule that a president can only be elected a maximum of 2 times.
Then there are also election hoaxes which are very severe because they bring up the issue of SARA (ethnicity, religion, race, and intergroup). Legislative candidates and presidential candidates seem to be ‘fed against’ based on SARA and this is annoying, because they have never issued a statement related to SARA.
Don’t let the election become an arena of pitting one against the other because of the spread of hoaxes. Therefore, the people need to declare peaceful elections and help the KPU (General Election Commission) and the government to ignore hoaxes and prevent their spread.
The public is also asked to help create peaceful elections by stopping spreading hoaxes and paying more attention to news that has spread from 1 WA group to another. Don’t let hoaxes spread and cause the election to become chaotic. Peace must be realized during the campaign period and after the election, by maintaining conduciveness in cyberspace and avoiding hoaxes.
Elections should not destroy brotherhood among Indonesian citizens and are very detrimental, because they can damage the nation. Isn’t it ‘united we stand, divided we fall’? During elections, people are asked to realize peaceful elections and not be triggered by differences, even if they support different parties or presidential candidates.
)* The author is a contributor to Sadawira Utama
