Meeting Of Political Rivals Successfully Steals Twitter Citizens' Attention According To Netray Monitoring

President Joko Widodo and his eldest son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka at the Bogor Botanical Gardens on December 8, 2019. (Between/Hanni Sofia)

The status of Gibran Rakabuming Raka as the son of President Joko Widodo and the Mayor of Solo has made his name more widespread in national political coverage lately. He is said to be one of the candidates who deserves to accompany Ganjar Pranowo as a presidential candidate promoted by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP).

The name Gibran Rakabuming has also been quite busy being discussed on social media Twitter and News in the past week, according to Netray Media Monitoring monitoring from July 25 to 31, 2023.

During that period,Netray found 7,782 tweets containing Gibran's keywords that had been uploaded by Twitter netizens. Netizens' discussion intensity regarding Gibran did experience ups and downs, but Selvi Anandita's husband's name was never absent from netizens' conversations.

Netray found that the impression quantity reached two million repeatedly, retweeted, andfavorite. The conversation could potentially reach up to 92.2 million accounts. The majority of netizens gave positive sentiment through tweets that were uploaded 3,815 times, while the other 1,619 had negative sentiment and the rest were neutral.

As mentioned, Gibran's name is often mentioned in the topic of the presidential election. Two names of Prabowo Subianto and Ganjar Pranowo were often mentioned along with the mention of Gibran's name. There were at least 1,841 mentions of Prabowo and 746 mentions of Ganjar's name when discussing Gibran on Twitter. Not without reason that Gibran's name was juxtaposed with the Gerinda Party presidential candidate, Prabowo Subianto.

Gibran's meeting with Prabowo in the angkringan Omah Semar, Solo, last May immediately became a conversation at that time. The casual meal was referred to as the 'code' of Jokowi's first son's support for Prabowo. After the unusual dinner, the survey showed that Jokowi's voters began to change course from Ganjar Pranowo to Prabowo Subianto, but Gibran argued that Prabowo's increase in electability had nothing to do with him.

Lha wong mangani bakmi thok immediately skyrocketed. Sakti no me. (People just eat bakmi, the survey period immediately skyrocketed. Then I will magic it)," said Gibran at the time.

Gibran Rakabumi emphasized that his meeting with Prabowo was solely because he wanted to learn from senior politicians. Until now, Gibran has not run or been nominated in the 2024 presidential election. Even so, he has higher electability than the names of politicians who have been busy being called to fill the position of vice president, namely Airlangga Hartarto, Muhaimin Iskandar or Cak Imin, and Zuklifli Hasan or Zulhas.

Gibran's name also continued to be a media dish when PSI filed a lawsuit regarding the age limit of the presidential and vice presidential candidates. Because of this problem, there has been an assumption that it is oblique about the possibility of Jokowi's intervention in order to build a dynasty in the country. Not to mention the news about himself refusing to become a campaigner or a presidential candidate from his own party, Ganjar Pranowo, who was later twisted as a sign of support for Prabowo. These two topics are compactly discussed by netizens on Twitter.

However, the issue of tension between Gibran and Ganjar subsided after the two of them looked engrossed in playing together around the fort of Pura Mangkunegaran, Saturday (5/8/2023), then continued to release the Tour de Borobudur participants and then walked back to the hotel for breakfast together.

As mentioned earlier, the meeting between Gibran Rakabuming and Prabowo is believed to have succeeded in boosting the name of Jokowi's eldest son to be increasingly discussed by netizens on Twitter social media. Not only boosted his name, the dinner session was also warmly welcomed because it was considered to be able to relax tension ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

The meeting between political figures ahead of the election year often makes people compatible. Apart from Gibran's encounter with Prabowo in May, a number of political elites who had different views ahead of the 2024 presidential election met on the sidelines of the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca. Starting from Ganjar's meeting with Anies Baswedan at the Jamuan Tamu Raja Palace in Mina, then the former governor of DKI Jakarta met PDIP Chair Puan Maharani.

To the Democratic Party's Strategic Communication Agency, Herzaky Mahendra Putra viewed the positive encounters of Ganjar and Anies, as well as Anies and Puan in the Holy Land. Meanwhile, the Head of the Department of Politics and Social Change Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Arya Fernandes views this phenomenon as a new awareness of the political elite. The phenomenon of this meeting is expected to make the political temperature less hot so that elections can run in peace and health.

If you withdraw further time, the public was also touched when the moment Jokowi and Prabowo were furious at the 2018 Asian Games. This happened, precisely, the male fighter Yudani Kusumah Hanifan won gold in the 55-60 kg men's fighting category and the rare moment was immediately welcomed by the joy of the whole country.

Competition is the state of two people or groups involved in lasting competitive relationships. Competition is the spirit of 'competitive' between the two competing parties. In the Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology, James Mark Baldwin defines three main types of competition, namely biological competition, personal or conscious competition, as well as commercial and industrial competition.

Competition can have a positive impact, namely the potential to increase motivation, produce harder efforts and show better performance. But on the other hand, rivalry can also contribute to greater risk-taking behavior among participants, and increase the tendency for unethical behavior.

We certainly remember that during the previous two editions of the presidential election when the temperature heated between the two camps, it was not uncommon to create divisions at the lower level. Let alone friendship, bonds of brotherhood are also sacrificed because of fanaticism towards the pair being championed.

Rows of moments of meeting political rivals are expected to make tense political temperatures over the past decade subside. We certainly miss welcoming political parties with a soothing atmosphere, without beatings.