Primordial sentiments are on the rise and may be abused to get votes in the 2018 regional elections.
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Kompas/Alif Ichwan
The Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) organize a discussion on regional elections in Jakarta on Sunday (11/2). Speaking at the event were Perludem chairman Topo Santoso (left), General Elections Commission member Ilham Saputra (second left), General Elections Supervisory Body member Rahmat Bagja (center), moderator Titi Anggraini (second right) and CORRECT advisor Hadar Nafis Gumay.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS – Today is the start of the period in which candidates of the 2018 regional elections take their serial numbers from the General Elections Commission (KPU). Despite the campaign period only officially starting on Feb. 15, political tensions have been rising in regions. Primordial sentiments based on ethnicity, religion and regionalism are rising in a number of regions and are being abused to attack political opponents.
The presence of candidates deemed by local KPU branches as ineligible to contest in local elections has also led to increased political dynamics in regions.
As of Monday (12/2/2018) at 10 p.m., six election candidate pairs had been declared ineligible to run in local elections. One of them is the Jopinus Ramli “JR” Saragih-Ance Selian pair in the North Sumatra election. A legalized copy of JR Saragih’s high school certificate was deemed invalid.
KPU North Sumatra head Mulia Banurea explained that, during the registration period on Jan. 10, they received a copy of JR Saragih’s high school certificate that was legalized by the Jakarta Education Agency. “We did a cross-check and found that his high school in Jakarta, SMA Iklas Prasasti, was closed in 1994. We then asked for clarification from the Jakarta Education Agency,” he said.
The agency then gave a response. “The Jakarta Education Agency said that it has never legalized a high school graduation certificate under the name of Jopinus Saragih G,” Mulia said, reading an official letter from the agency.
However, Saragih then displayed his original high school certificate, its legalized copy, a Supreme Court (MA) ruling on the certificate’s validity and a letter from the Jakarta Education Agency. “I legalized my education certificate on October 19, 2017 and it was signed by the head of the Jakarta Education Agency,” Saragih said.
According to Saragih, the validity of his education certificate was also questioned when he was running for Simalungun regent in 2015. At the time, MA declared his certificate valid. “I passed the selection process as Simalungun regent candidate twice. Why can’t I pass now?” he said. He added that he would file a dispute to the North Sumatra Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) regarding the decision by the KPU North Sumatra.
Report
Bawaslu has received a report on the distribution of banners containing religious sentiments related to the West Kalimantan gubernatorial election. On social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, election-related posts with regionalist or religious sentiments are also cropping up.
“We have found religion-tinted banners in West Kalimantan. As the campaign period has yet to begin, we anticipate sending letters [urging people to restrain themselves from doing such acts]. From the banner’s content, you can guess where it comes from,” Bawaslu member M. Afifuddin said.
North Sumatra gubernatorial candidate Edy Rahmayadi is also known to have brought up the issue of local and non-local candidates. However, Irham Buana Nasution, the secretary of the North Sumatra executive board of the Golkar Party, which backs Edy, said that Edy did not mean to bring up the dichotomy between homegrown and outsider candidates.
National Mandate Party (PAN) deputy secretary-general Yandri Susanto said that identity politics involving ethnicity, religion, race and groups could be effective in getting votes in the regional elections. “Identity politics will certainly be used. However, even if it is used, it should not change the quality of democracy,” he said.
Afifuddin said that the use of identity politics might be problematic if certain candidates zero in on personal identity and disparage their opponents.
Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University professor Azyumardi Azra said that the use of primordial issues to exclude those deemed as “others” in communities in order to mobilize voters was unhealthy for national integration. Such issues will only bring forth discrimination on other citizens and this contradicts the spirit of Bhinneka Tunggal Ika (Unity in Diversity).
“This may reinforce social disintegration. If discrimination occurs on a large scale, there can be resistance from minority groups, such as migrants. We must look at this carefully as these are dangerous waters,” he said.
Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) senior political researcher Syarif Hidayat said that Indonesia’s transition toward democracy had yet to create a culture of participatory citizenship. Therefore, transactional politics and voter mobilization based on ethnic or religious sentiments remain common in regional elections. Programs and policies are rarely discussed in campaigns.
“There is also the tendency to maintain ethnic, racial, religious and intergroup [SARA] issues as these can be abused by political elites in contestations. This is dangerous and makes it difficult for us to escape the trap of procedural democracy,” Syarif said. He added that SARA issues are commonly cultivated by political elites merely intending to grab power.
