As the capital city of Indonesia, Jakarta takes the spotlight as a benchmark for progress compared with other cities in the country, however, with regards to the upcoming 17th April General Election, there is a growing negative culture within its residents. Yes, it used to be the spotlight for the Gubernatorial Election in 2017 that divided us dearly where even foreign news media covered the issue, however it also showed the dynamism and active participation of Jakarta inhabitants and even outside Jakarta, at the very least through the statistics of tweets shown by ‘Drone Emprit’ a software made by Ismail Fahmi, social media expert and founder of the software.

Even so, can voicing our opinion only through social media be a good indicator for political participation? According to a study by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) with the General Election Commission (KPU) in 2014, Jakarta citizens have a thorough understanding of politics but suffer from acts such as absent in the voting place (TPS) and campaigned for abstention or Golput instead. Despite reassurance from survey institute Lingkaran Survei Indonesia (LSI) that nonvoters will hover around 10%, another survey by Jeune & Raccord indicated that Golput potential for millennials will amount to 40%. It will be a worrying trend for the upcoming election and the future of Indonesia.

This has been the case recently with Lini Zurlia, human rights activist that was put in the spotlight after expressed her decision to Golput instead, and has sprung-up a group of non-voters to campaign for abstention also in social media platforms. Make no mistake, abstention is every Indonesia’s citizens right, a political choice that is protected by our Constitution. In addition, we cannot argue that nonvoters do not have the rights to criticize the government because nevertheless they are tax-paying citizens.

Campaigning for Golput in Indonesia used to have a meaningful context during the New Order’s Regime as a protest against the authoritarian regime. The question arose whether the same narrative can be applied to the current condition. Does this Golput campaign have a strategic rationale other than what it appears to be, a loss of confidence to the current electoral and political system? What is the ultimate aim of this movement?

Despite Golput being a political stance itself, I believe we as millennials have the moral obligation to exercise our voting rights. As the young generation in Jakarta that is knowledgeable on the topic as well as technology-savvy, we have the advantage of the internet and social media to reduce time-consuming research of the many candidates available from the political parties. We can start by looking up the candidate profiles through the official website of KPU, or as simple as typing the keyword of ‘list of eligible and worthy legislative candidates to be voted’, or ‘list of websites to search for legislative candidates’ data’.

If navigating the official KPU website feels too complicated then we can opt for Perludem’s (Elections and Inequalities Conference NGO) PintarMemilih website where we can conveniently type our sub-district or city and it will list down the candidates of our area with data from KPU. If we are interested to vote for DPR members to be re-elected then we can do research on Indonesia Corruption Watch’s (ICW) RekamJejak.net, as according to ICW, 89% Indonesia Legislative Members from 2014–2019 period will be nominated again by their respective political parties.

Golput is every Indonesian citizen right, but this abstention movement that is viral in social media has no clear aim other than displaying a loss of confidence for both of the presidential candidate, even though there are still other candidates to choose at the DPR, DPD, DPRD Provinsi, and DPRD Kabupaten / Kota. It must not affect millennials and the younger generation to become apathetic to even put effort into doing a bit of research for the legislative candidate representing their neighbourhood. Exercising our vote matters for the 20% population that cannot vote due to technical and administrative difficulties will depend on us, we are the ones with the privilege to learn our candidates and walk to the ballot room on 17th April to vote.

Let us be reminded of the failure to vote and its effect to the 2016 United States’ Election or the Philippines Election that led to the nomination of Donald Trump and Rodrigo Duterte, each have their own reputation of being intolerant to immigrants or minority group. Another example is the Brexit referendum in the same year, where according to a study by John Curtice of Strathclyde University led to the conclusion that half of the total nonvoters that actually were against the referendum regretted their decision of not showing up to the ballot room that day.

There are five ballot papers to pin our vote, five papers to determine Indonesia’s future for the next five years. This is not an idealistic point of view that guarantees everything will be perfect once we exercise our voting rights, however by doing research and presenting ourselves in the ballot room, we as future generations will progress as a modern democratic nation that can be an example when others have failed.

Taking inspiration from the opinion article titled “ASEAN can act on Rohingya” by Mr. Usman Hamid on 19th September 2017 published in Jakarta Post newspaper, the writer wishes to further explore the idea of how the organization can act beyond the ASEAN Charter in response to the Rohingya Crisis. Early in its establishment, the organization is already committed to create a human rights body through Article 14 from the Charter that stated, “In conformity with the purposes and principles of the ASEAN Charter relating to the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, ASEAN shall establish an ASEAN human rights body”. With regards to the clause, ASEAN then continuously emphasized its commitment through the creation of ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) in 2009, the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (AHRD) in 2012, and in the roadmap of ASEAN Community from 2009 until 2025. These are the important foundation for ASEAN to help Rohingyas.

AICHR, as the embodiment of ASEAN’s pledge to human rights at first glance have the capability to assist the plight of Rohingya in Myanmar. However, the Terms of Reference in AICHR specifically address the freedom and human rights protection of ASEAN citizens only, and re-emphasized AIHCR’s adherence to the Non-Interference principle. This will require Rohingyas that were recognized stateless to be officially part of ASEAN, hence the need of Myanmar to revise the 1982 Burmese Citizenship Act and include Rohingyas as its citizen. For that reason, ASEAN members are unable to pressure Myanmar as the country will view it as a breach of sovereignty and refer to the Non-Interference principle. Separate efforts are being done instead by Indonesia and the United Nations to push the agenda of granting citizenship status for Rohingyas.

To overcome that issue and show what ASEAN is capable of. AICHR must refer to the AHRD adopted in the 21th ASEAN Summit 2012. First, the General Principles of the AHRD recognize the rights to every person regardless of race gender, religion, and national origin. Second, the Civil and Political Right section states that every person is entitled to equal protection by the law, ASEAN must affirm the rights of every person to freedom of movement and residence in each state, and the rights to receive asylum in another state. Lastly, Article 18 of the declaration states “Every person has the right to a nationality as prescribed by law. No person shall be arbitrarily deprived of such nationality nor denied the right to change that nationality”. These clauses obliged ASEAN members to help Rohingyas regardless whether they are part of ASEAN citizens or not.

Currently, AIHCR with its term of reference limits its scope of work to protection of migrant workers, women and child rights, combatting human trafficking, and human rights obligation to the environment. The scope must be expanded with regards to the human rights issue of Rohingyas, because if the issue is untouched, it undermines the function of AIHCR to handle the most urgent of human rights issue. Expanding the scope does not mean AIHCR must include direct humanitarian program or activities such as coordinating a logistics assistance right away, though it could stick with workshops, trainings, and capacity building to stakeholders that are willing to help rohingyas. Recent news in Indonesia showed the overwhelming willingness by Muslim civil societies or Non-Government Organizations to help Rohingyas first hand. But there are also risks of turning the issue into a hate crime, where those NGOSs direct their anger to the government of Myanmar and Rakhine Buddhists. This is where AIHCR can step in, by providing workshops to help those NGOs better understand the situation before they are being sent to help. On that example also, AIHCR can develop a regional plan of action where it can be the coordinator for other NGOs in ASEAN countries, give them capacity building, and mediate with Myanmar to let the NGOs operate in the country’s border.

If AIHCR is able to do such, Indonesia and UN’s effort for pushing Myanmar to grant Rohingyas legal status will have great impact. Once the breakthrough is reached, ASEAN Members in the spirit of ASEAN Community must adhere to the principles of human rights promotion and protection stated in the ASEAN Security-Political (ASPC) and Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) 2025 Blueprint. In the ASPC, ASEAN members are required to support the AIHCR with its mandate, support the implementation of AHRD, while also strengthen the interaction between human right bodies and civil organizations.

Other ASEAN body that can contribute is the ASEAN Humanitarian Assistance Centre (AHA Centre), it is created to manage disasters in the region. Their responsibility is to provide mechanisms to reduce disaster losses of ASEAN citizens, ranging from natural disasters such as flooding and droughts, to giving humanitarian support for internally displaced communities in the Marawi region of Philippines due to the recent ISIS occupation. AIHCR can coordinate AHA Centre with civil organizations to give a big impact in alleviating the suffering of Rohingyas.

By relying on AIHCR and ASEAN body such as AHA Centre to tackle this emergency issue, it will disprove many pessimistic views regarding ASEAN as an organization that only serves political purpose for its members. It could be a great start for AIHCR to prove its capability, while at the same time proving to the global community and most importantly citizens of ASEAN countries that the spirit of ASEAN Community is real, felt, and impactful.

In this digital age where information is circulated around in high speed and easy accessibility, Indonesia has a paradox between an increasingly smartphone reliant population and ever stagnant low literacy rate. This paradox will impact on two underlying problems that Indonesia is currently facing, fake news and a stronger ISIS presence in Southeast Asia. According to a recent study by Central Connecticut State University in the U.S, Indonesia ranks 60th of the 61 countries listed, making it the second least literate country before Botswana. What does it mean to be illiterate though? Even though the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) reported that Indonesia has impressive progress over the past fifty years to decrease its illiteracy rate, the problem faced is the ability on how average Indonesian understand and make use of the information written. Based on the annual PISA report in 2015 by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that evaluate the education systems of countries around the world, more than 85% of fifteen years old Indonesian only possess PISA level 2 reading, which suggests they are unable to consistently perform skills such as recognizing and piecing together several information in a text. This means that most teenagers in the country don’t possess the important skills needed for secondary and tertiary education.

The paradox faced is a situation of positive progress, where many analysts predict the ever-growing middle class population in Indonesia. The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) predicts that the size of the middle class in Java Island alone will outgrow Thailand’s population in 2020. It will also shift the consumer trend to product such as household appliances and electronics. More Indonesians having smartphones in their pocket, and access to news and other information conveniently privileged. That is until we take a look that the problem of fake news, particularly with the recent Blasphemy case of Jakarta’s governor Basuki Tjahaya Purnama or Ahok. In September 2016, an edited video of Ahok’s speech in Belitung Island went viral led to massive and consecutive protest by ultra conservative Muslim groups in Indonesia. The edited video framed Ahok as a figure that denounce the Holy Quran but in reality he said that a verse in the holy book had been used to lie to people. Even though the unedited version of the video was circulated in the social media to counter the hoax, it was all too late.

The second problem faced is a stronger ISIS presence in Southeast Asia conveys the increased possibility of radicalization through social media. It is a well-known fact that ISIS use social media such as Facebook and Twitter that is popular to teenagers and young adults in Indonesia, and the group is well-adapt in utilizing it. Take the terror-related incidents over the past year, where most of the perpetrators confessed they were influenced by what they found about ISIS online.

The situation faced doesn’t seem to portray grave danger to Indonesia, yet undeniably it is a threat to many important things to the country in the long run. It can be a setback to the democracy in the country, people are able to manipulate information and misuse their freedom of expression. It can pose a threat to national security as well, from a matter of literacy that may seem distant and unrelated. Now is the time for the government to act, as the matter of improved literacy for Indonesian is not a one night problem solved.

Sometimes I wish I could be a stoic, emotionless robot that could work to perfection without hinderance from emotions.

But then I realize I wouldn’t have the chance to appreciate the finer things in life. Experience joy and sadness, fear and anger, ultimately the qualities that makes me grow as a person.

6th June 2012

Isn’t it weird how fate brought two people together at the most unexpected time? Makes you wonder how the universe truly works.

And when the two meet at the crossroad of destiny, they either travel along together forever, or for awhile, or they are only passing by.

17th October 2014

Pray.

Chant it with a whisper.

Quiet enough to fill your body and soul.

Loud enough that it may echo to the universe.

18th February 2015

On reading the Art of War

Read

Contemplate

Apply

Repeat

Constantly preparing yourself to face inconsistent variables in life.

27th May 2015

The appearance does not bring out the personality.

The personality brings out the appearance.

To the man in the mirror.

9th November 2017

Perhaps one of the true mark of growing up is able to enjoy the simple things while life gets more complicated.

Such as having a quiet lunch near an opened window, enjoying the breeze made by the rain. Occasionally staring outside just to absorb the view.

-Office lunch with a coleague

29th November 2017

Power outage in the office.

Everyone scrambled to keep the computers on.

30th November 2017

Dear Mademoiselle,

How are you doing? It’s been awhile and I would like to catch up if you don’t mind.

It’s rainy session right, so things can get depressing real fast. But, I already made a rough draft of the things I need to to do for 2018. So I don’t drift around like the past two years.

It gives me hope and fear at the same time. I need to make a jump, not a blind leap where I cant see the risks. Im offered to work in a research institute, but I wont get paid a single rupiah. I’ll be leaving a job with stable income but if everyday I think about quitting, I think it’s worth it.

Well, there goes my story again. Sometimes I wish I can be that humorous person so I can make you laugh. Everyone I know are stressful of something, Im sure you do too.

Most of the time I feel I can only spout negative auras, like rain. Only a few people like rain right, I would prefer a sunny and warm day too.

So here I am again, writing my thoughts and pretending to send it to you. If I have the courage to say hi, I would probably skip all this part and talk about Wes Anderson’s new movie instead.

Anggap ini sebuah permulaan. Permulaan tanpa sketsa namun sudah direncanakan oleh angan-angan yang berbisik kepada saya dari tahun lalu. Saya menulis tanpa tujuan, saya menulis tanpa arahan. Teruntuk audiens virtual yang mungkin membaca sesaat, dan jika berkenan membaca sampai akhir lanturan kata ini.

Artikel ini akan menjadi jejak tulisan pertama saya di dunia virtual.

Jangan salah! Saya suka menulis, dan menurut saya tidak ada olahraga pikiran yang lebih baik daripada menuliskan apa yang dipikirkan.

Namun apa daya, apa yang saya tuliskan hanya terekam dengan goresan pena yang dicamkan dalam jurnal pribadi. Tidak ada mata yang melihat, tidak ada pikiran yang melahap tulisan tersebut, dan tidak ada kritik yang membuat saya berkembang.

Apa yang anda baca saat ini, layaknya sebuah karya Affandi yang hanya menggunakan cat dan goresan tangan sebagai mediumnya, sebisa mungkin saya meminimalisir jeda antara lanturan pikiran saya dan tangan saya yang berlomba mengetik sisa-sisa lanturan tersebut.

Terjun bebas ini saya gunakan sebagai momentum untuk sebuah pernyataan.

Sebuah pernyataan virtual yang mungkin akan tenggelam dalam luasnya lautan kode binari digital. Sebuah jawaban akan perasaan iri terhadap teman-teman yang berani menampilkan karyanya ke khalayak luas, dan sebuah kesaksian terhadap keinginan jiwa untuk meluapkan emosinya secara sistematis.

Saya menulis, terjadilah.