Don’t feed into their delusions. Let them get to their senses themselves.
Lately I’ve been seeing more and more people who voted for the winning second candidate in last year’s general election here in Indonesia along with a few 01 voters saying that the hate towards the 02 voters are overplayed. Saying the cancel culture is getting to a point that it’s annoying and unnecessary. I feel like these people don’t really know why non-02 voters really do hate them so much.
Like I get it. It’s overplayed it’s too much bla bla bla. We’re being too harsh on them for cancelling them on twitter or whatever. But no, I’d say let’s bring back bullying and cancel culture if it means we’re putting those who were misguided by those stupid campaigns back to the right path as impossible as that task may be.
1. “It’s not about winning or losing”
Like here’s the thing. You said it’s never about winning or losing. I get it. But let me argue that that mentality as a point of view in politics is way too surface level to matter. Yeah it’s not about winning or losing. It’s not about winning because we are the loud majority asking for change. It’s about the consequences and paths that our country and we, as the people, will live through in the next half a decade. Your vote is not a joke, it’s not a game that we play every five years. It matters much more than your surface level analysis argues. Your vote chooses how your daily lives are going to be dictated for the next 5 years. 5 fucking years. It chooses how your taxes are used, how taxes itself is collected. How wealthy you’d be in that 5 years, how easy it will be for you to get jobs. It’s not a game and I will never pretend that it is.
So what does this have to do with the hate? Simple, I and the rest of the 42% never chose this path. I never chose to be taxed more than I already am. I never voted for my tax rupiahs to be used to fund outrageous authoritarian lunch programs that benefit no one. I never voted for IISMA to be possibly dissolved when I have invested way too much of my life into it. I never voted to lose my chances at getting internships through MSIB during this crucial 6th semester.
Unlike the 02 voters, I and the 42% voted for change. We voted for reform, we voted for a better Indonesia. We believe that those voices will output a better economic future for Indonesia. We wanted that. Not a government led by a human rights violation with a delusional level of power ambitions. We saw the track records, we saw the debate arguments, we saw an aspiring leader campaigning for a better Indonesia. And we wanted that, not this. Don’t blame us if we’re mad. I wouldn’t doubt you would too if Anies or Ganjar won the election.
2. Violating the sanctity of Indonesian democracy and constitution deserves more than just anger
I wouldn’t doubt that this level of hate and distrust towards the 02 crowd is unthinkable if their candidates weren’t actively breaking the constitution and the sanctity of Indonesian democracy. I wouldn’t doubt that if Gibran was out of the picture, this level of hate would be universally unjustified. I wouldn’t doubt that if they hadn’t committed so much election trickery and money politics, this level of hate would be universally unjustified. I wouldn’t doubt that if they had picked a better person to fill that ballot, we wouldn’t have been this mad towards them.
But here’s the thing. 02 voters are complicit towards the destruction and downfall of Indonesian democracy that have been fought for by the people back in the turn of the millenia through the Reformation era. These people voted willingly for an illegitimate nepotistic candidate that violated the constitution to be there. These people voted for a person who was complicit in domestic and international genocides against marginalised groups and our neighbors down at Timor Leste. These people, especially those who are of age to vote for the first time, my cohorts within Gen Z, didn’t think twice at who they are electing just because of the gemoy facade that they have employed. The so-called “agents of change” are keeping the status quo going, not without a second thought towards picking a better candidate.
Like I at least have some mercy towards those who regretted their decisions and joined the opposition post-election. I have mercy towards those in the older generations who have been blinded by their constant money politics. They don’t deserve all of this bullshit either. I have respect for elders even if they didn’t pick Anies or Ganjar, but not my cohorts. Not to the Gen Z and Millennials who openly campaign for 02, even after seeing all of the damning things discrediting them as leaders. Those who engaged with the 02 gemoy train. Those who ignored the red flags in a way worse than they would when it comes to significant others. Those who have been educated in politics by many people. Those who consumed Bijak Memilih and WIUI’s content and thought it’s better to just comment their ignorance and turn a blind eye. I strongly distrust them.
3. Double standards in actions
They play the victim and blame us for cancelling them through harmless twitter posts that will only reach our bubbles in the twitter sphere. They argued that if our candidates have won, they’d be killed because of how we’re so outrageously annoying and harmful. Disregarding the fact that we would just live our ideal lives under the presidents we believed in, only critiquing those in power like we did with Anies accidentally using AI generated content from Freepik.
They argue that we are violent, when all we do, unironically, is just yap on twitter. I’ll laugh at the fact that we don’t convert our anger into action, but it’s true. Let’s look at the counterfactuals though, what their side says about the issues their elected government created:
Like just look at these words uttered by these voters, man. It doesn’t sound very peaceful and innocent to me. The connotation that Anies would kill people for being different in what they believe in when their people are actively and openly calling for him to be shot or for children to be Soeharto’d out of existence for being ungrateful towards their mediocre free lunches. Quite the significant double standard me thinks. Not to mention the way they respond to critiques of their government. Using buzzers paid by our tax rupiahs to influence the public discourse on the 12% VAT hike and many other issues. All showing their own aggression towards any form of legitimate critiques from voters of other candidates and even political watchers and experts.
I believe it’s very fair that we blame you for it
In the end, we live in a democracy. We picked who we wanted to have as president and vice president. Unfortunately, 58% of you picked the objectively worst candidates for it. We could’ve had progressive tax measures like carbon taxes and lower target ratios of taxes from taxing the richest people in the country.
We could’ve had an academic as our president, or either well loved governors as our presidents following the stepping stones towards leadership. We could’ve had a stable, fuss free 11% VAT rate going through new years eve. We could’ve had a change in Indonesia’s design crisis. We could’ve had a better outcome. But the 58% chose them, so here we are. Living in economic and social turmoil, laughing at the free lunch programs and their stupidly horrible execution. All thanks to you, 58%. Thank you and with my heart, fuck you.
previously posted on Medium at https://medium.com/@fjello/opinion-why-the-hate-for-02-voters-is-justified-e2058f23f42c
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