JAKARTA - With just over 300 days until Indonesia’s general election, a movement to educate the country’s youth on politics has been launched to provide easy-to-digest facts about policies, candidates and current affairs.
Bijak Memilih, which translates to “choose wisely”, was started by public policy advocacy group Think Policy and youth-based content site What Is Up Indonesia. It also provides a platform to discuss political issues ahead of the election on Feb 14, 2024.
Through its website and social media accounts, it aims to help youth get to know their potential leaders better and become more politically aware, so they can make “informed and better decisions”.
“Our big goal is basically to shift the conversation in the political climate surrounding the 2024 election from (one that is) identity-based to (one that is) more issue-based,” said one of the movement’s co-initiators, 28-year-old Abigail Limuria, who studied at Biola University in the United States.
The key focus of the Bijak Memilih initiative is its social media pages and website (bijakmemilih.id), which collate information on political parties and candidates, including their stance on issues relevant to young people.
Ms Abigail and the movement’s other co-initiator, Ms Andhyta Firselly Utami, 31, said the plan is timely, given that 107 million people, which make up 55 per cent of voters, will be aged below 40 at the 2024 election.
The movement says on its website: “As the majority of voters, we have a big hand in determining the future of the country. Bijak Memilih is here to make it easier for you to choose wisely and properly.”
It has 15 people on its steering committee, and a varying number of volunteers who help out at its events.
Bijak Memilih was officially launched on March 19, but work on it began months earlier. Its Instagram page has gathered close to 5,000 followers since it started posting in January, and it has so far organised at least seven forum discussions – both in-person and virtually – where youth discuss issues such as social equality, education, health and political parties.
There are bigger plans for the movement, the co-initiators said, including holding more discussions and outreach events. It also plans to release a manifesto taking in ideas and responses from the discussions.
When asked if young people in Indonesia are politically apathetic, Ms Abigail disagreed, bringing up several cases in which young people had made their voices heard.
These include the 2019 mass protests by students who rallied against several laws, including a new criminal code that would penalise extramarital sex.
Yet, a sense of disillusionment seems to have set in, with youth feeling like the quality of conversation over politics is lacking due to the absence of proper platforms.
“It’s not like a two-sided, productive political discourse, but it is sometimes just slander or feels like they are blowing off steam out of frustration,” said Ms Abigail.
The movement has caught the attention of key groups, including political parties, civil society activists and the General Elections Commission (KPU), which said it appreciated the work to help raise youth awareness on public policy.
KPU will be working with Bijak Memilih to focus on urban middle-class youth engagement, which means it will work with the movement on initiatives to get young people more interested in politics and to cast their vote.
Ms Andhyta, who studied at University of Indonesia and Harvard Kennedy School in the US, said: “I think the committee recognises that the mechanism to invite participation and to engage would be different for this election, because the way that most of this younger generation accesses information is different.
“So I think this is why Bijak Memilih is kind of timely, especially this year, because of the demographics of the voters.”
