Relying On Volunteer Militants

Photo Illustration, Andri Winarko

JAKARTA - In less than three months the public will determine the president's choice. There are three pairs of presidential candidates who are fighting to pit the idea of vision and mission. Of the three contestants, presidential candidate Anies Rasyid Baswedan is not a party cadre. Anies was initially declared president by the Nasdem Party.

To carry out their initial candidacy, they designed a coalition of 3 parties, namely the Nasdem Party, Democratic Party and Prosperous Justice Party. However, the coalition with the Democratic Party did not reach consensus, until their position was replaced by the Partai Kebangkutan Bangsa (PKB) which was previously in the Gerindra Party ranks. So that Anies was finally able to register with the KPU in pairs with Muhaimin Iskandar.

Realizing the party's limited support, Anis revived a group of religious-based volunteers. Anies volunteer groups who were seen declaring their support for this AMIN include the Yellow Ijo Biru Volunteer Group, the Archipelago Movement Volunteers, the Solar Guard Volunteers, the Go Anies Volunteers, the Ka'bah Building Forum, Anies Amanat Indonesia, the Tower Volunteers for the Change of the Indonesian Islamic Student Family and the Volunteers of the Arek Suroboyo Spontan Movement (GASS).

According to the captain of the AMIN Winning National Team, Muhammad Syaugi, the presence of the volunteer team continues to grow. "So until now this volunteer movement has really grown. Because it is from the heart," said Muhammad Syaugi, at the end of last September. According to the Spokesperson for the Presidential Candidate from the Change Coalition, Sudirman Said, the number of their volunteer nodes has reached 550 nodes.

Currently, Anies and his team's struggle rests on the support of volunteers, considering that they have limited collition. Anies has been known for his intellectuality, because he has a background as an educator's family. The following is Anies' background.

Get To Know Anies Baswedan More

Anies Baswedan Rasyid is a figure who is well known for his former governor of DKI Jakarta for the 2017 period 2022. The son who was born in Kuningan, West Java, May 7, 1969, from the Rasyid Baswedan and Aliyah pairs, was born to the family of educators. His father Rasyid Baswedan is the Vice Chancellor of the Islamic University of Indonesia and his mother Aliyah is known as a professor at the Yogyakarta State University.

Studying in the kindergartens of the Syuhada Mosque and Laborator Elementary School, SMP Negeri 5, and SMA Negeri 2. Young Anies before graduating from high school had traveled to the United States because he received a scholarship for education for one year. As a result, his high school graduation was delayed by one year he was only declared to have graduated from 1989. Graduated from high school continuing his education at the Faculty of Economics UGM Yogyakarta and became an economic scholar at the age of 26 years and was active in an Economic Studies Institute at the UGM Inter-University Study Center.

The grandson of Abdurrahman Baswedan, a journalist, diplomat, and Indonesian fighter, has again received scholarships to continue his master's degree at the University of Maryland, School of Public Policy, College Park, United States and continue his doctoral degree at Northern Illinois University, Department of Political Science, Dekalb, Illinois, United States. Graduated from he became Director of Research at The Indonesian Institute, the organization focused on research and analysis of public policy. From there he was elected Chancellor of Paramadina University, at the age of 38.

Anies then developed Indonesia Teaching, a non-profit that recruits, trains, and sends the younger generation as Teachers in Elementary Schools (SD) and remote communities for a year. From there, the name Anies is widely known to people.

Fery Farhati Ganis' husband, began to get involved in politics when he followed the Democratic Party convention, he was also involved in helping the presidential candidate pair Joko Widodo-Jusuf Kalla by becoming a spokesman, then the Minister of Education.

Jokowi's luck did not stop there. Prabowo, chairman of the Gerindra Party, asked him to be nominated as Governor of DKI and paired with Sandiaga Uno, a businessman who first became a Gerindra cadre.

He faced the candidate for incumbent Basuki Tjahaja Purnama alias Ahok. He won the election which was considered the most brutal regional election because it involved the SARA issue. This trail is considered to still overshadow the figure of the presidential candidate No Urut 1. He was accused of being with the masses who had played identity politics.

So that people are anxious that the threat of political polarization will be carried away again in the 2024 presidential election. Concerns about the practice of defamation, slander, fake news, hate speech, and identity politics are prone to coloring it. Arising these accusations and concerns, a member of the Advisory Team of the AMIN Pair, M. Chozin Amirullah stated that this concern had not been proven so far.

"People used to worry that Jakarta would become Syria, in fact it wasn't. For 5 years Anies was able to harm the religious leaders. If it was an image, it shouldn't have lasted 5 years," said Chosin, contacted by VOI, Friday, December 16.

In fact, so far Anies has been able to manage these various kinds of differences well and does not need to use repressive force or by deploying Densus. You do this by prioritizing dialogue.

"This is a track record and the quality of a leader," Chosin said.

Furthermore, the Co-Founder of the Volunteers of the Intervening Movement, stated that on an individual basis Anies was worthy of being a leader. "His personal quality is superior to other candidates. Judging from the articulation, his analysis method is different from others. Second, from track records and from an integrity perspective, Anies is classified as the cleanest and least problematic candidate," said M. Chosin.

Even though he has served in the government, of the three candidates, Chosin claims, Anies Lah has seen the most significant progress. Regarding accusations by some people who considered Anies to be poor when he led Jakarta because the floods were still happening, traffic jams were still happening.

According to Chosin, when Anies led Jakarta, congestion decreased a lot, not completely, but decreased a lot. The problem of congestion, which was previously in Jakarta, occupies the top 10 most congested cities, can get out. How to overcome this, Anies made integrated transportation called Jaklinko, each mode of transportation connected, so that integrated, the facilities are repaired, the driver of enhanced welfare, which was previously based on deposits, is now paid kilometer-based.

M.Chosim also revealed three advantages of Anies' program, which can be offered to voters. First, Anis has a plan to create a big city, as an economic center. Apart from Jakarta, but in other cities. Second, building a minimum of 10 international standard stadiums in the same class as Fifa. Third, it is a concern for the agricultural world, especially overcoming scarcity of fertilizer by eradicating the mafia, limiting supply chains that are too long to cope with agricultural products and livestock products by making warehouse or farming receipts, so that there is a guarantee of sales for agricultural and livestock products. And farmers are easy to get capital because there is a guarantee of sales with the Warehouse Resi system

However, M Chosin reminded Anis, not to get carried away or join in, to spread logistics like other partners. In addition, it will make it difficult for the team below. Anies also does not have as strong logistics as his opponent. "Anies should not follow the style of other couples who are jor-jor. If we have a strong battle with us, we will lose financially. Anies' strength is precisely for militant volunteers. The militant volunteers are only in Anies." said the former chairman of PB HMI.