Who Is The Figure Behind The Design Of The Election Postponement Issue?

Photo by Jeswin Thomas on Unsplash

JAKARTA - Political observer and Executive Director of Voxpol Center Research and Consulting, Pangi Syarwi Chaniago, emphasized that the maneuvers of a number of state officials and general chairmen of political parties who want to postpone the election are tantamount to an attempt to violate the constitution. the wishes of the people, starting from the Minister of Investment, Bahlil Lahadalia who on behalf of businessmen asked for the 2024 election to be postponed. Followed by the General Chairperson of the PKB, Muhaimin Iskandar or Cak Imin, who proposed that the election be postponed for one or two years. Cak Imin claimed to have voiced representatives from MSME businesses who asked for the election to be postponed on the grounds of economic recovery. "Who is the entrepreneur? Who is the MSME business is also still a mystery," Pangi said in his statement to VOI, Wednesday, March 16.

Investment Minister Bahlil Lahadalia in a white shirt (Photo: BPMI Setpres/Lukas)

Cak Imin's proposal was then welcomed by the General Chairperson of Golkar, Airlangga Hartato. Airlangga said that during a visit to the Siak area, he met with oil palm farmers and heard the aspirations of the farmers who asked for the election to be postponed. The reason is that the price of palm oil is good, so I am worried that if the president changes, the price of palm oil will drop. "It doesn't stop there, the general chairman of PAN, it's very unfortunate, it's sad that as a party that was born in the reform era, Zulkifli Hasan has also voiced the postponement of the election," continued Pangi. It didn't stop at the head of political parties, instead the discourse of postponing the election was echoed by people close to President Joko Widodo. Namely the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, Luhut Binsar Panjaitan. He made a scene by claiming to have big data of 110 million people's votes who wanted the 2024 election to be postponed. "Luhut claims that he has data on people's aspirations to postpone the 2024 election, he said, '110 million of various kinds, Facebook, all kinds, because people play on Twitter, about 110 million,'" Pangi said, imitating Luhut's words. Pangi then challenged Luhut to open his big data. However, Pangi believes that the data in question does not actually exist. "Let's challenge Luhut to expose the data. Are you brave if you don't manipulate the data? I'm sure that the empirical landscape is the same, the tone of voice is the same, there are other forces that condition the orchestra to be the same," he explained.

Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, Luhut Binsar Panjaitan (Photo: BPMI Setpres/Laily Rachev)

From a series of names ranging from Bahlil, Cak Imin, Zulhas, Airlangga, to Luhut who became an orchestra actor about the postponement of the election, Pangi suspects that an architect deliberately designed the issue at the palace. "In my opinion, it is suspected that the architect of the design for the postponement of the election was in the hands of the government. Were the orchestrators of the list of names above slapping the president in the face? Are they looking for the president's face? Or are they putting the president in a difficult situation? In my opinion, these political parties no longer deserve to be called statesmen, it's sad that those who are supposed to maintain the quality of our democracy have become democratic termites," Pangi explained.

Therefore, Pangi considered, there must be an agenda of civil resistance against the orchestra that designed the discourse on postponing elections or increasing the term of office of the president. Because he said, the agenda of the discourse on postponing the election undermined democratization in Indonesia and was constitutionally flawed. "It is necessary to incite civil resistance to subvert the interests of the oligarchs who do not want the party to end quickly, do not want to abdicate from their positions which have been limited or regulated by the constitution, namely two 10-year terms," he stressed.

"Civil resistance is one way to save our democracy, so that inclusive democratization can be realized, so that democracy is not held hostage to the clutches of oligarchic groups who want to perpetuate their power for a long time," Pangi added.