Vice President Ma'ruf's Response To Identity Politics: Our People Are Smart Now!

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JAKARTA - Vice President Ma'ruf Amin believes that the Indonesian people are smart and can understand the bad use of identity politics in elections.

This was conveyed by the Vice President when answering journalists' questions regarding the efforts that need to be made to avoid identity politics events such as those that occurred in the 2019 Election.

"Actually, our people now are smart, they are smart," said the Vice President in Jakarta, Thursday, August 18, quoted from Antara.

According to him, when all parties, be it the government, political parties, religious leaders, and community leaders, have made a call not to use identity politics, then the public can understand it.

"Therefore, it should not be an issue," he said.

He conveyed that when choosing a candidate for leadership, everyone will have a tendency in various aspects, and this is natural. However, he stressed that the tendency of identity politics in campaigning for candidate leaders should not be carried out.

"When people choose, inevitably there is a feeling of 'I'm closer, more of the same views, prefer it because he's better, because of this, this, this', I think when it comes to choices, it's not a problem. What is avoided is that he campaigns, it should not bring the (identity politics) aspect," he said.

He further gave an example that in the past, differences in the determination of holidays have also caused conflicts at the lower levels. But now the differences in the determination of the holiday no longer lead to conflict.

"I think we hope that starting 2024 there will be no more conflicts due to differences in choices," he hoped.