Carrying Slogan Politics With Chill, Doesn't Mean PSI Doesn't Seriously Fall Into The Political World

'Political with Chill', PSI Chairman Kaesang Pangarep at the National Land Coffee (Kopdarnas) event at Djakarta Theater, Jakarta, Monday (25/9/2023). (VOI/Diah Ayu Wardani)

JAKARTA 'Political and young people are two things that are far apart, at least for now. This is reflected in the low interest of young Indonesians in the political world. According to the CSIS survey, only 1.1% of young people are currently joining political parties.

The Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI), which is mostly filled with young people, wants to embrace the millennial generation not to be anti-political. This intention was clearly displayed when Kaesang Pangarep was inaugurated as PSI General Chair (Ketum) at Djakarta Theater, last Monday, September 25.

When the youngest son of President Joko Widodo arrived on stage, the giant screen that is the background of Kaesang gave two sentences that attracted attention.

The two sentences are Political with Chill and Political is our Ninja Way! PSI Deputy Chairman of the Board of Trustees Grace Natalie tries to explain two sentences that successfully stole the attention. In essence, PSI wants to invite the public, especially young people to politics happily.

"Political withchill means a cheerful politics, which does not use hoaxes, which do not capitalize on religion, for example, those who do not spread hatred, which makes people uncomfortable, which makes people fight in WA groups, for example," said Grace when contacted by VOI.

"Political is like agakchill. It is Takchillini politics that makes young people, people who are not used to dealing with politics, are lazy to follow political issues because the contents are just fighting, and many people are negative about spreading hatred," Grace explained.

The choice of this slogan is not without reason. Ahead of the Presidential Election, political temperatures in Indonesia often heat up. This is not only happening now, but also in previous years.

The form of support for the champion presidential candidate is often done in dirty ways, such as spreading hoaxes, attacking religion, even physical. Not infrequently this creates divisions between supporters. This, according to Grace, is what PSI wants to avoid. Even though it carries the slogan 'Political with Chill', it does not mean PSI is not serious about politics.

"Beyond it doesn't mean it's not serious. Relaxing here means it's not negative. Because if you look at it, now the supporters of the Presidential Candidate are making a negative campaign, which physically attacks not a program, creating material that vilifies others without obvious substance. What's like this is uncomfortable, uncomfortable," Grace added.

This heating temperature is what makes people, especially young people, reluctant to intersect with politics. In fact, according to him, if the political temperature that occurs otherwise can encourage young people to be interested in entering politics.

"How can I hope that the participation rate for young people will be high if this is the style shown," said Grace again.

Based on the results of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) survey, young people's interest in politics is still low. This can be seen from the lack of young people in the country who want to run as regional heads and members of the DPR/DPRD.

Only 14.6 percent of young people have the desire to nominate themselves as members of the DPR / DPRD. Then there is only 14.1 percent of young people want to run for regional heads.

According to the CSIS survey, young people's interest in participating in political parties is very low. Only 1.1% of young people are currently joining political parties.Dituturkan Grace, low interest in young people in politics because the majority of parties do not seriously use young people as active objects.

Young people are just being chased by their voices. But the top management of the party is a very senior person, young people are only placed on the party's wings, young people don't get the opportunity to have a strategic role," Grace explained.

This former journalist did not deny the existence of a distance between politics and youth, because they felt politics was irrelevant to life. In fact, every part of our life is always related to politics.

Young people feel politics is irrelevant, maybe this should be brought closer to the style of communication or the issues chosen. Even though young people feel politics is far and irrelevant, in reality, every thing from us to death is always related to politics," said Grace.

Instead of taking to the streets to demonstrate, young people have the potential to change policies that are deemed inappropriate for politics. This is in accordance with PSI's slogan that "Political is our Ninja Way".

"Demo does not change policies, if you want to change something policy, you have to go into politics. By entering politics, we can enter the legislative process, enter the DPR, then we can participate in supervising the budget, making budget policies, making law products that directly affect our lives," explained the woman who was born on July 4, 1982.

Regarding politics and young people, they were also touched on by political experts from Al Azhar University Indonesia Andriadi Achmad. He commented that the appointment of Kaesang Pangarep as chairman of PSI was a history and encouraged other young people to follow in the footsteps of this 28-year-old man

"So the inclusion of Kaesang as party leader at a young age is history. Young people have different leadership souls. This must be followed by other youths. Because to change a policy, you have to go through politics. How can you change policies if young people don't participate in politics," Andri said explaining at length.