Political Parties Need to Work Hard to Embrace Generations Z and Y

KOMPAS/WAWAN H PRABOWO

Rows of flags of political parties participating in the 2019 General Election adorn the flyover in the Senayan area, Jakarta, Sunday (7/4/2019).

A new strategy is needed for political parties to approach Gen Z and Y that have critical views. This generation can become a big contributor to “golput” (absenteeism) in the 2024 election if their aspirations are not accommodated.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — Political parties need to change their strategy in approaching voters from Generations Z and Y, who are more critical and interested in issues that are close to their daily lives. With about 2.5 years remaining before the 2024 general election, political parties must start working hard to change their approach, both in terms of policy programs and communication patterns, for that generation.

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Moreover, the portion of Gen Y and Z voters is quite large. Reflecting on data from the General Elections Commission, for example, there are 60.3 million voters aged up to 30 years, which represents 31.7 percent of all voters in the 2019 election.

On the other hand, the Kompas R&D survey in October 2021 showed that the portion of respondents from Gen Z (under 24 years old) who had not yet made a choice on political party preference was still 48.1 percent, the highest compared to Gen Y (24-39 years old), Gen X (40-55 years old) and Baby Boomers (56-74 years old). This proportion is higher than the average undecided voters across generations, which is 40.8 percent.

On the other hand, the three major political parties chosen by Gen Z and Y respondents tend to be the same as the other three generations, namely the PDI-P, Gerindra Party and Golkar Party. However, the proportion of accumulated electability of the three political parties compared to other political parties is different for each generation, namely Gen Z (31.2 percent), Y (33.7), X (35.6) and Baby Boomers (50.6).

In order to fully embrace Gen Y and Z, it is important for political parties to carry out transformations in order to respond to their political tendencies.

Executive director of Charta Politica, Yunarto Wijaya, when contacted on Wednesday (20/10/2021), said Gen Y and Z were smart voters. They are the most critical segment of the electorate because they control information. In order to fully embrace Gen Y and Z, it is important for political parties to carry out transformations in order to respond to their political tendencies.

Daily issues

If the established political parties are unable to accommodate the aspirations of these young people, Yunarto continued, there is potential that they will become big contributors to golput (absenteeism). The political participation of the younger generation is largely determined by the ties of issues brought by political parties to everyday problems. Gen Z and Y are more interested in real everyday issues than normative issues.

KOMPAS/WISNU WIDIANTORO

Joko widodo (sixth left) and Maaruf Amin (fifth right) pose with the leaders of the nine political parties backing their campaign after the pair registered on 10 Aug. 2018 as candidates of the 2019 presidential election at the General Elections Commission in Jakarta.

To be able to adapt to this aspiration, political parties must immediately change their approach to policymaking and the way they communicate with the younger generation. “Political parties can no longer only talk about macro issues or use normative language. We have to start with micro issues that concern their daily lives and enter their communities,” he said.

The daily issues, for example, are about the feasibility of public transportation that they use daily and the availability of public space for them to spend the weekends. "Political parties must be able to meet the concrete daily needs of such young people," said Yunarto.

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Director of the Center of Economic and Law Studies, Bhima Yudhistira, said the more essential thing that Gen Y and Z actually wanted to see from political parties was whether there were policies that benefited the younger generation. "This concerns issues that interest the younger generation, such as clean democracy, good corruption eradication, the environment, youth unemployment and entrepreneurship that is unique to their generation," he said.

However, both Yunarto and Bhima assessed that the party had not discussed many issues that were of concern to the younger generation.

Direct engagement

The crucial position of Gen Y and Z is realized by political parties. They began to work on preparing specific strategies to manage the votes of this generation.

PDI-P deputy secretary-general Arif Wibowo said the PDI-P wanted young people to be involved in party and organizational activities. According to Arif, about 80 percent of the PDI-P administrators at the sub sub-branch, sub-branch and branch levels are under 35 years of age. In the future, in the strategy for winning the election, the "field commanders" that the PDI-P will deploy are these young people.

Meanwhile, deputy chairperson of the Golkar Party, Ahmad Doli Kurnia Tandjung, said that to approach Generations Y and Z, his party would present young figures as chairpersons of the commissions and bodies at the House of Representatives (DPR). All Golkar leaders are also required to have social media accounts and actively use them as a medium of communication with the public.

KOMPAS/SHARON PATRICIA

Character differences between the four generations were discussed at the launch event and the Generation Gap(less) book discussion through a webinar on Tuesday (14/7/2020).

Deputy of the Democratic Party's Election Winning Body, Kamhar Lakumani, said that so far the Democrats had adapted the media and campaign presentations to the tastes of young people. The Democrats also presented the figure of chairman Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono, who was considered to have a close relationship with Gen Y and Z. Through the figure of AHY, he is optimistic that he can establish good relations and gain a place among the younger generation.

Meanwhile, because Gen Y and Z don't like being preached at or led in a certain direction, deputy chairperson of the Gerindra Party, Habiburokhman, said his party preferred to inform people about the results of its work that benefited young people rather than claiming to be a party of the young people.

They hold activities with the younger generation.

The United Development Party (PPP), according to party deputy chairman Arsul Sani, has a youth wing organization that seeks to attract young people in rural areas and urban millennials. They hold activities with the younger generation.

Chairman of the Public Relations Division of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), Ahmad Mabruri, said that to attract Gen Z and Y, the PKS continued to create programs that were beneficial and could be applied in everyday life, including young millennial farmers and PKS Digital School that provides skills in analytics, content creation and software for digital marketing. The PKS approach to the younger generation is also carried out through social media. (REK/NIA/SYA/CAS)

(This article was translated by Kurniawan Siswoko).