Young People Want Concrete Action from Political Parties
These expectations are enough to explain the high number of young voters who have yet to decide on their preferred political party.
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Rows of flags of political parties participating in the 2019 General Election decorate the flyover in the Senayan area, Jakarta, Sunday (7/4/2019).
Political parties need to take more concrete public action for young people. Young voters expect political parties to take their role into account, instead of using them as mere objects.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS — Young people expect the actions of political parties can truly be felt in the community, not only for election-related interests. Political parties are also expected to produce policies that take the aspirations of the younger generation into account and provide opportunities for youth to appear in public.
These expectations are enough to explain the high number of young voters who have yet to decide on their preferred political party. The Kompas R&D survey in October 2021 showed that 48.1 percent of Generation Z respondents (below 24 years) had still not made their choice of political parties. The figure is the highest compared to Generation Y (24-39 years), Gen X (40-55 years) and Baby Boomers (56-74 years).
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In fact, Gen Y and Gen Z voters make up a relatively large share. Data from the General Elections Commission (KPU) show that just 60.3 million voters are aged 30 years or below, comprising 31.7 percent of eligible voters in the 2019 general election.
Zainal Hafidz (28), Secretary of the Nahdlatul Ulama Student Association (IPNU) Entrepreneurship Institute, said that young adults like himself expected their political lives to involve more than just election-related interests. Visible, concrete activities from political parties were needed in education and public participation, as well as community empowerment. And these should not be restricted to the preelection period.
“I really want political parties that take action. Not only those that make promises, saying 'will' and 'would', but those that say they've done this and that. Leadership must be demonstrated by real work in the field, not just doing things ahead of the elections," he said on Thursday (21/10/2021) when contacted from Jakarta.
The millennial group for the presidential candidate Joko Widodo and the presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto held a press conference, Friday (12/7/2019) in Jakarta.
Zainal, who is active in various entrepreneurship training activities, said that the challenges for young people today were in the fields of education and employment. With the country’s large productive age population, young people needed job security and decent incomes for their future.
"This has not been [addressed] by political parties. In fact, this will be a big challenge amid the large productive workforce in the future," he said.
As a result, the majority of their policies were oriented to the older generation, so the younger generation had grown tired of their existence.
The executive chairman of wisdom and interinstitutional relations at Muhammadiyah Youth, Ali Muthohirin, is of the view that political parties are still controlled by the older generation. As a result, the majority of their policies were oriented to the older generation, so the younger generation had grown tired of their existence.
“The younger generation is not given the opportunity to appear in public. Even if there is [an opportunity], the younger generation only become objects of political exploitation,” he said.
However, Muhammadiyah Youth chairman Sunanto underlined that the younger generation should not be apathetic about political parties. In a democratic country, political parties played an important role as a channel for ideas and views in policymaking.
"Political parties need to work more on the youth segment so they are interested and will decide on their preferred political party," he said.
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Given this not easy challenge, it has been projected that new political parties and parties that do not have seats in the House of Representatives will face greater difficulty in growing their popularity than established parties. The Kompas R&D survey in October 2021 shows that not many citizens are familiar with newly established political parties and nonlegislative parties. The top three major political parties preferred by Gen Z and Y respondents show the same trend as respondents of other three generations, namely the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the Gerindra Party and the Golkar Party.
Workers complete the making of political party flags at one of the efforts to make political party flags in the Bukit Duri area, South Jakarta, Wednesday (12/3/2019).
Of the 1,200 respondents involved in the face-to-face survey, 83 percent said they were unfamiliar with both the new parties and nonlegislative parties. Only 17 respondents recognized a number of new political parties, such as the Gelora Party (4.3 percent), the Masyumi Party (2.7 percent), the Peaceful Indonesia Party (2.4 percent), the Ummat Party (2.1 percent) and the Nusantara Party (1.6 percent).
The popularity rating of these political parties is at most 1 percent, while others are 0 percent or unknown.
In addition, there are the Justice and Prosperity People's Party (Prima), the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) Party, the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) and the Perindo Party. The popularity rating of these political parties is at most 1 percent, while others are 0 percent or unknown.
Perindo secretary-general Ahmad Rofiq said that the results of the 2019 elections was a lesson for the party, which was working to gain entry to the House in the 2024 elections. "Various programs have been prepared so [the party] will gain public votes and get achieve the party's electability target," he said.
Meanwhile, the Gelora Party views the results of the latest Kompas R&D survey as encouraging. According to Gelora secretary-general Mahfuz Sidik, its popularity is considered quite good for a new party and will grow. "Currently, we are focusing on building [our] organizational structure from the central board down to the regional branches so that it meets the KPU requirements for registering political parties," he said.
No closeness
Lecturer Mada Sukmajati at the Faculty of Politics and Government at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta said that the large number of young people who had yet to choose their preferred political party, at 40.8 percent, was still higher than the average of undecided voters across generations. This indicated a decrease in party identification, and that the people no longer felt close to political parties.
"This closeness [between voters and parties] is very important so that their choice of political party is based on ideological compatibility, not pragmatic issues," he said.
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Candidate for Vice President Sandiaga S Uno campaigns in Brondong, Lamongan, East Java Tuesday (26/3/2019).
New political parties and nonlegislative parties with low popularity needed to intensify their election campaigns, said Adi Prayitno, a social and political sciences lecturer at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN).
“New political parties and nonlegislative parties must carry out massive campaigns. This can be done through banners to build narratives on social media and mainstream media," he said. (SYA/REK)
(This article was translated by Kurniawan Siswoko)
