Voters Await Campaign Programs
JAKARTA, KOMPAS – The majority of Kompas survey respondents deem the presidential candidates’ vision, mission and programs as important. However, only few have been exposed to such information.
Voters are still awaiting more campaign programs from the candidates of the 2019 presidential election. Understanding the candidates’ programs is important not only for considering ahead of voting day, but also for using as a reference in monitoring the elected government.
The 2019 election campaign period began on Sept. 23, 2018 and runs through April 13, 2019. However, halfway through the campaign period, voters have received minimum exposure to the two candidates’ programs.
A Kompas research and development survey on Jan. 3-4 showed that only 33.93 percent of respondents had been exposed to the vision, mission and programs of the presidential candidates. The remaining respondents said they had received information on the campaigns’ activities, the candidates’ daily lives and character as well as hoaxes, or said that they had not been exposed to such information or returned a blank response.
This is despite the fact that around 90 percent of respondents considered the vision, mission and programs of the presidential candidates to be either important or very important. The survey involved 501 respondents from 17 years old and above, and across 16 major cities.
Online discourse regarding the presidential candidate pairs tended to be unrelated to the candidates’ programs. For example, a raucous “battle” concerning hashtags #JokowiTakutPaparkanMisiVisi (Jokowi afraid to explain mission vision) and #PrabowoTakutTesNgaji (Prabowo afraid of Koran test) lasted all day on Sunday (1/6/2019).
Similar patterns are evident over the last 90 days on Google Trends in connection with the keywords “Jokowi”, “Prabowo”, “Ma\'ruf Amin” and “Sandiaga Uno”. As accessed on Saturday morning (1/5), Google Trends shows an increase in “Jokowi” keyword searches, including “Game of Thrones”, “game of thrones Jokowi”, “bahar smith Jokowi” and “jokowi raja poster”. Meanwhile, keyword searches containing “Prabowo” that also saw an increase include “Boyolali Prabowo”, “Prabowo celebrates Christmas” and “Prabowo Haiti”.
Meanwhile, increased “Sandiaga Uno” keyword searches included “Sandiaga Uno is rejected”, “sandiaga uno bung hatta” and “sandiaga uno stepping over the tomb”; increases in keyword searches containing “Ma\'ruf Amin” were seen in “maruf amin natal”, “maruf amin ill”, “pictures of jokowi maruf amin” and “maruf amin\'s wife”.
Absence of ideology
Social media observer Irendra Radjawali said that incomprehensive online discussions on campaign programs during the campaign period was due to two factors. First, the majority of internet users cannot stay online for long, because they were distracted by great volume of information.
“So, the behavior becomes one of instant [response]. Second, both candidates are utilizing social media platforms as an ‘alternative’ campaign method, instead of as a medium for ‘educating [voters]’ or for spreading more substantial information,” said Irendra.
Atma Jaya Catholic University-Jakarta’s political psychology lecturer, Indro Adinugroho, said that the situation was inseparable from the absence of a dominant political ideology and political figure in the country. As a result, the campaigns did not raise policy issues, but trivial issues. This also accommodated grassroots expectations, as something that educated voters might consider unimportant was actually important to grassroots voters.
Monitoring performance
Association for Elections and Democracy executive director Titi Anggraini said that the lack of voters’ exposure to electoral campaign programs was caused by the inability of the political elite and political parties to offer voter education through their campaigns.
This was despite the fact that the people should base their electoral choice on their understanding of a candidate’s vision, mission and programs. Voters also needed the information to monitor the performance of the elected government. In contrast, said Titi, if the voters based their choice on likes and dislikes, this would weaken civil control over the government, as their criticisms and support were not based on performance, debate and programs, but rather on emotions.
Jokowi-Ma’ruf national campaign team deputy chairman Arsul Sani said that information on the work program was disseminated through face-to-face residential campaigns. “So far, discourse that have appeared on social media or in the mass media have claimed public attention, whereas discussions on the vision, mission and programs are occurring at the grassroots,” he said.
Prabowo-Sandiaga Team coordinating spokesperson Dahnil Anzar Simanjuntak said that the pair would intensify public meetings over the remaining 100 days of the campaign period to explain their vision, mission and programs. The campaign team and volunteers would also meet with potential constituents. (AGE/SAN/INK/REK)