Ross Tapsell, a senior lecturer at the Australian National University, said that there are four things that observers concern regarding the 2024 Indonesian election. First, whether the Indonesian election campaign will be filled with public policy issues. The Philippines and Malaysia 2022 elections have minimal discussion of public policy issues among election participants.
“In the 2019 Indonesian elections, there was no in-depth discussion on public policy issues. We do not know the differences between the two presidential candidates on many public policy issues, although there appear to be ideological differences. Jokowi is a democratic reformer, while Prabowo is pushing for Islamic populism. So, what will the election campaign be like in 2024?” explained Ross at the online discussion "The Growth of Civic Tech and Online Campaign, a Way to Bring Democracy Closer to People," on Friday (9/2).
According to Ross, there are two steps that can be taken by politicians in Indonesia to differentiate themselves from other politicians, namely taking a different attitude on a public policy issue, or identifying themselves with a certain identity, such as Islam or nationalism.
The second thing that is of concern is whether the digital campaign in the Indonesian election will be mostly carried out by buzzers, paid influencers, buzzers, cyber-troopers, and trolls. In the Philippines and Malaysia 2022 elections, these digital workers are directing the conversation on social media with non-public policy issues.
Make sure the narrative during the election campaign is dominated by civil society and the public, not by buzzers and paid influencers," Ross said.
Regarding digital campaigns, Ross reminded Indonesia to make regulations to regulate it. Campaign spending on buzzers, influencers and cyber-troops must be traceable to authorities, and reported by election participants.
"Indonesia must ensure that everyone and all candidates have equal access to digital labor, because candidates with more money will hire more workers to carry out digital campaigns, such as buzzers and influencers," said Ross.
According to him, politicians will use all social media platforms to campaign. However, TikTok will not affect the election significantly, as many people say the election would be different without TikTok. Tiktok is only about content packaged in video format.
The third thing, namely the rules regarding media and media ownership in Indonesia. Ross asked the public and policy makers not to underestimate the influence of media ownership on politics. Media owners who have ties to politicians, even in the case of Indonesia, the general chair of the party owns a media company, making the election competition unbalanced.
“This is a matter of the growing media campaign industry in Indonesia, and how to regulate it. We should not underestimate the influence of media ownership or media tycoons, and the relationship between media owners and politicians. Also, today's phenomenon, social media and mainstream media direct and intertwine with each other. We often see news reports driving social media account coverage, and social media coverage driving news reports. So we shouldn't think of mainstream media and social media as separate from the digital realm in 2022," said Ross.
The fourth thing, namely, whether the public sees the internet and social media as credible media to get information. Trends in Indonesia, many people see social media as not credible because of the amount of disinformation. Ross wants to know whether the public in the 2024 election will follow the candidates' official accounts and pages to get credible information.
“If you think that newspapers or television news give you independent news, the reality is in the digital age, it's all mixed up. Currently, in fact, there is a higher trust in social media, except for the case of Indonesia, and this has the potential to degrade the quality of democracy. However, it happened because there was no trust in the Independent media,” explained Ross. []
This article is translated by Catherine Natalia.
