Yogyakarta – General Election 2019 currently becomes an interesting topic to talk about either in real life or social media, by the youngster and the elder. This democracy event is also enthusiastically embraced by young voters, including the students.
Yogyakarta as a city with huge number of students lived in, was chosen as the host of Festival Rumah Pemilu 2019 (General Election 2019 House Festival). This event was cooperated by Kompas Gramedia with Universitas Gadjah Mada and its purpose was to educate the young voters to participate in General Election 2019 because it implies that we have done change for Indonesia by voting
Festival Rumah Pemilu 2019 was wrapped as workshop and talkshow titled “Muda Memilih (Young and Vote)”. Some of workshop has already done in the morning, such as Photography Workshop, Bayar Kuliah Pakai Saham (Pay The Tuition With Stocks), Di Balik Berita Kompas (Behind The Kompas News), and Jurnalisme Multimedia (Multimedia Journalism) which attended by hundreds of students from various universities in Yogyakarta
At 13.30 WIB, the talkshow was opened by the speech from UGM and song performance by Joyce Duo. Rambo Tujalahe group, consists of students from Faculty of Social and Political Sciences UGM, was also performed Saman Traditional Dance which amazed the audiences.
“Muda Memilih” Talkshow in Festival Rumah Pemilu 2019 was hosted by Timothy Marbun.
“Jogja has these active students, easy to be involved in a discussion, full of curiosity, and at this event, they are ready with some questions to ask. I feel appreciated and proud with Jogja students.” Timothy said along with clapping hands from hundres of participants. Before inviting the guest speakers to come on stage, Timothy invited Wizzy, a singer, to come on stage and sing “Flashlight” song.
Four guest speakers in Festival Rumah Pemilu 2019 are Pangeran Siahaan (Co-Founder of Asumsi), Agung Yudha (Head of Public Policy Twitter Indonesia). Rustika Herlambang (Director Communication of Indonesia Indicator), and Arief Budiman (Head of General Election Commission Republic of Indonesia (KPU RI))
“The essential thing in General election is educated voters, a voter who understand why they have to vote, who they have to vote, and what kind of information they know about General Election.” Pangeran Siahaan said while opening up the discussion, Thursday (29/11) in Grha Sabha Pramana UGM.
“Missed information makes the young voters confused, why they have to vote, who they have to vote, and other things related” he added.
Feeling curious about how far the knowledge of the talkshow participants, Timothy asked if they already know who to vote in General Election 2019. Some of the participants answered “yes” and some of them answered “no”. Further, Timothy asked if they are young voutes and most of them answered “yes”, which means more than a half of the Festival Rumah Pemilu 2019 participants are just about to vote in their first General Election 2019.
Agung Yudha, Head of Public Policy Twitter Indonesia added, big issue related to General Election 2019 on Twitter nowadays are about hate speech and hoax, especially from millenials group because 81% response about Presidential Election came from millenials where the conversation itself on Twitter is reaching 5 million.
The similar response was said by Rustika Herlambang, Director Communication of Indonesia Indicator which has done a research about how provocative statement issues (hate speech and hoax) is more trending rather than the campaign program.
Arief Budiman, Head of KPU RI (2017-2022) suggested the young voters to vote and participate in the upcoming General Election 2019.
“By participating in General Election 2019, the voters are helping this country towards the better future. Primary matters expected by the Indonesian people such as affordable education and healthcare, infrastructure development, all of them could be achieved by the best people in this country. How to choose them? By voting and pariticpatin in General Election,” said the alumni of Post Graduate Program, Faculty of Economics UGM 2010.
As the closing statement, Arief Budiman gave us message, “General Election determined many things, therefore you have to be active to use your right to vote for the best leaders for this country. The first thing you can do is to do online check whether your name is already registered in Permanent Voter List (Daftar Pemilih Tetap (DPT)).” [Irzha]