(courtesy of Earth Hour Indonesia)
For a
few weeks now I’ve been scouring the media to find signs of life among the
student population, who have been so instrumental in Indonesian activist
politics in the past. But just as social
activist Abbie Hoffman noted of the US in the 1980s that “universities are hotbeds of rest,” so it
now seems with Indonesian youth, as exemplified in this March 27 SBS Sydney article noting that “Despite
the fact they wield huge power, it's not easy to convince Indonesia's 54
million under 30s that they should vote.”
Indonesia's youth key to electoral
success
AAP--Social
media has been a gift to Indonesian politicians competing for the powerful
youth vote, but if you're caught in a compromising situation with a teddy bear,
it leaves you with nowhere to hide.
Aburizal Bakrie - millionaire owner of the Brisbane Roar
A-League team and presidential candidate for the Golkar Party - was this week
pictured on a blog, cuddling a giant teddy.
That seemed cute enough until a YouTube video showed the
bear, 67-year-old Bakrie, a Golkar colleague and a pair of young actresses
aboard a private jet on a jaunt to the Maldives in 2010.
Like his rivals, Bakrie is using a carefully managed online
presence to engage Indonesia's under 30s in the April legislative polls, and
July presidential race.
So they knew exactly where to go to ask what the luxury trip
was about, and why he went without his wife.
Social media has helped some Indonesian politicians ride
huge waves of success, including Jakarta's governor, Joko Widodo.
Others haven't been so lucky. But they'd look more foolish
if they didn't campaign online.
Indonesians are the
world's highest users of social networking apps Twitter and Path, and
with 29 per cent of voters aged under 30, they have huge potential to affect
the outcome of this year's elections.
. . . .Two
Indonesians who studied in Australia are leading the effort to get more people
to the polls.
Pingkan Irwin formed Ayo Vote (Come on Vote) after returning
to Indonesia from studying abroad and realising that even in this young
democracy, voters had become complacent and cynical.
"The general perception about politics in Indonesia is
that it's very corrupt, and no matter who the politician is, they're going to
become corrupt once they get elected," she says.
"The reason
these incompetent people get elected is because we don't vote."
Fellow founder Abdul Qowi [noted that] "Considering the
large number of young people eligible to vote this year, they're going to play
a huge role in deciding our country's future leaders and how we move forward."
The 2012 Jakarta gubernatorial race set the benchmark here
for what a youth-centric change campaign could achieve.
Its winner, known as Jokowi and now also a presidential
candidate, used web forums, videos and an addictive Angry Birds-style game to
win a legion of young fans.
Two thousand of them were inspired to perform a flashmob in
the city's centre to a One Direction song, with its lyrics changed to a Jokowi
campaign anthem.
But Jakarta-based technology writer Aulia Masna points out
that was just one part of the saturation coverage Jokowi enjoyed.
"The influence of TV is still significantly much larger
than the likes of Twitter or Facebook," he says.
"But TV and other traditional media also take their
news from social media, therefore social media presence and activities can help spearhead the image or
intention that candidates want to project."
Meanwhile, Bakrie has tried to turn the teddy story around
by adopting the stuffed toy as a mascot.
At a family media conference, his wife assured reporters
there was nothing untoward about the Maldives trip. Bakrie himself says it was
a mission to research tourism, with celebrity sisters who are family friends.
If there's a silver lining here, it's that even when you
"go viral" for the wrong reasons, it never lasts long.
No comments :
Post a Comment