Pandemials and Politics of Ideas

Kompas

Didie SW

I was thoroughly examining the various class options offered by the preemployment card. However, I was not choosing the training program for myself but rather for my younger sibling who had graduated from college in this year. The pandemic generation is what many people call this group of young people.

The World Economic Forum has another term for this generation: pandemials. In the Global Risks Perception Survey (GRPS), the disappointment or frustration experienced by young adults all over the world is perceived as a short-term threat to be faced by world nations. This condition is evaluated as the least monitored risk among many other threats over the short term.

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The pandemic has caused pandemials to receive a dissimilar quality of learning in their education due to digital access disparities. The loss of learning can have an impact on their academic performance over the coming short or long term.

At the same time, those who have graduated during the pandemic period face shrinking job opportunities. This is not to mention their competition with the older generation also affected by the economic crisis. Pandemials in different parts of the world are feared to become a lost generation unless they receive greater attention from the authorities.

In general, economic problems were the main concern of these generations.

A study conducted by Delloite has sufficiently presented the global perspective of pandemials. They surveyed 14,655 members of the millennial generation and 8,273 members of Gen Z in 45 countries. In general, economic problems were the main concern of these generations.

Some 50 percent of Gen Z said their concern over career and employment prospects contributed to their stress. Meanwhile, 43 percent of the millennial generation and 41 percent of Gen Z acknowledged their fear that the economic situation would worsen in 2022. Delloite recorded a 10 percent increase in the rate of concern from last year.

Pandemials in Indonesia

Does Indonesia need to be alert to this threat? It most likely does. There are indications that the millennial generation and Gen Z in Indonesia share the same concerns of the pandemials in various other parts of the world. Statistics Indonesia (BPS) recorded the highest rate of open unemployment in August 2021 in people aged 15-24, at 19.55 percent.

In a 2021 UNICEF report, 29 percent of people aged 15-24 in Indonesia claimed to often feel depressed and or to lack motivation. The median of 21 countries is 19 percent and Indonesia occupies the second-highest position. Besides, the Women’s National Commission found a threefold spike in the rate of child marriage from 2019 to 2020.

KOMPAS/YUNIADHI AGUNG

Savana (9), a grade III student at Mentari Intercultural School Bintaro (MISB), South Tangerang, waves to classmates and teachers, while studying from home via the Zoom application from his home in Pondok Karya, South Tangerang, Thursday (11/6/2020). ).

With reference to the population census of 2020, the millennial generation and Gen Z already dominated the Indonesian population by making up 25.87 percent and 27.94 percent of the total population respectively. For the economy, this population proportion is expected to be a motor of growth. They are expected to dominate the middle class of Indonesia as manpower as well as sources of employment. Meanwhile, in politics, their voice will determine the future direction of the state.

Relieving anxiety

To this end, the 2024 general elections constitute the most crucial moment for two reasons. First, new national leadership will appear. Second and no less important, the future political direction of Indonesia will be determined by young voters who were born and grew up in the post-Reform period.

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Today we are too busy to think of the first, but at least consider the second. Pandemials who feel anxious about their future need some hope to get free from the trap of confusion. At the same time, political actors very easily benefit from the situation to advance their personal interests by manipulating the emotions of pandemials.

The old method of closed candidacy will not be favored by pandemials and will just induce frustration over the lack of improvement.

One of the best ways of channeling the anxiety of pandemials with the presence of political competition in 2024 is opening the room for a convention. Otherwise, at least an arena for the debate of ideas should be opened before formal campaigns begin. The discussion of ideas among candidates should be arranged as early as possible to build the expectations of anxious voters. The old method of closed candidacy will not be favored by pandemials and will just induce frustration over the lack of improvement.

The initial findings of a study conducted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) indicate the potential for positive acceptance of a convention by young voters. Apart from technical issues and political calculation, the millennial generation and Gen Z will generally put greater emphasis on the process of nomination and the debate over candidates’ ideas.

Through these proposed debates, the public will be invited to actively participate in controlling state policy consistency in the future. Politics overburdened with empty slogans will not produce a lot of impact. The millennial generation and Gen Z will be more interested in monitoring the consistency and standpoints of political parties and candidates regarding the issues in the platforms they support.

KOMPAS/KRISTIAN OKA PRASETYADI

Hiero Lasut (20) attended the online graduation of Sam Ratulangi University with his mother, Youna Lasut-Sompotan (44), at his home in Manado, North Sulawesi, Thursday (11/06/2020).

It certainly gives the impression of exaggeration to include the 75 million members of Gen Z and the 69 million members of the millennial generation in Indonesia in the same basket. The Indonesia Millennial Report 2021 compiled by the IDN Research Institute, for instance, splits the millennial generation into six interesting categories, which are those of adventurer, visionary, artist, leader, socializer, conservative and collaborator. Nonetheless, there is a general similarity in which their activity on social media constitutes the dominant character of each category. On average, over 70 percent of them say that availing themselves of social media is their main activity on the internet.

The close ties of the generations with social media seem to have to do with the spirit of launching protests. V-Dem data show that from the 1990s, mass mobilization for democracy continued to increase significantly until its peak in 2019, before declining due to the pandemic.

In 2019, Indonesia experienced such a wave of mass actions by the millennial generation and Gen Z. Interestingly, field observations revealed that they came from very diverse socioeconomic backgrounds and dismissed various stereotypes, so we don’t need to worry about political apathy among the millennial generation or Gen Z.

What should be feared is their antipathy to politics. This condition may arise when politics is not brought to the issues relevant to their real needs at present. My sibling is only one of the millions of pandemials currently apprehensive about the future. Slogans alone won’t help them much.

ARSIP PRIBADI

Edbert Gani Suryahusada

Edbert Gani Suryahudaya, Researcher at the Department of Politics and Social Change at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

(This article was translated by Aris Prawira).