Tuesday, March 19, 2024 | 14:55 WIB

Elections should be a joy – not slander and hoaxes

Ricky Tamba, S.E.
‘98 Network/Prabowo-Sandi Militant Fanbase
Spokesman

IO – In addition to Ad Hominem attacks, random buzzers relentlessly spout the term “fearmongering” or “scaremongering”. This term, which as we all know means a type of campaign that arouses fear or unrest, has been used to describe the behavior of Presidential Candidate 02 Prabowo Subianto, whose spirited speeches customarily encourage the people to strive together for the sake of our beloved United Republic of Indonesia (Negara Kesatuan Republik Indonesia – “NKRI”). Vice-Presidential Candidate 02 Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno, who exposes various real and current social and economic issues with this country with his funky millennial style, is also negatively framed as “irresponsible” and “cuckoo”.

Such accusations are impossible to justify in a digital era of Millennial awareness, where all fake tracks and image-building can easily be traced and exposed. I am not going to enter the realm of statistical data, as I am no survey agency that manufactures satire memes, or expert economist fawningly praising those in power, or an upper-class political demagogue, State Budget parasite, let alone a rotten conglomerate tycoon who tyrannizes the people.

What alarms me (which I suspect is also a fear of my readers) is what will happen to all of us if State funds continue to be skimmed off by rotten elites, thanks to laws that are fierce against little citizens and gentle against big officials. I am afraid that trillions of the nation’s wealth will continue draining overseas, as a result of facile foreign capital games played by various ultra-liberal neo-colonialist / imperialist (neo-kolonialis/imperialis – “nekolim”) policies, particularly since today it is much easier to carry out crooked financial sleight-of-hand in an era of digital finance.

More fearsome is the fact that import restrictions have been relaxed so completely, killing off local food productivity and resulting in acute dependence on foreign sources, which imperils our national sovereignty. My biggest fear is that I will be criminalized due to my critical writing and comments, and I must suffer the same accusations, rumors, and bla bla bla (fill in the blanks) that hit the ulema, the habaib (Arabic “Beloved”, and especially beloved and respected members of the Islamic clergy), and activists over the past few years.

Paul Joseph Goebbels, NAZI Minister of Information and Propaganda, Adolf Hitler’s minion, said: “Any lie that is campaigned continuously and systematically will change into a false reality. The perfect lie is a truth that is twisted just the slighted bit.”

It would be horrible if elections, as a constitutional mechanism, are loaded with hoaxes and slanderous empty campaign tactics of the political elites and their sycophants, simply for the narrow pragmatic purpose of getting their idol elected. If this continues, what use do we have for the 2019 Elections Peace Declaration in Jakarta on 23 September 2018? Where are the Elections Commission (Komisi Pemilihan Umum – “KPU”), Elections Monitoring Agency (Bawaslu), and Elections candidates for Wednesday, 17 April 2019, who have agreed on “the orderly, peaceful organization of elections without hoaxes, politicizing of race and religious issues, and money politics”?

Therefore, let all of us supporters of the Presidential Candidate Pair 02 Prabowo-Sandiaga campaign our constructive ideas and thoughts in order to reorganize NKRI, disseminate a positive image of the figures of Pak Prabowo and Bang Sandi, explain diligently the vision and missions of Indonesia Menang (“Indonesia Wins”) door to door to the remotest corners of each village, and finally vote Presidential Candidate Pair 02 Prabowo-Sandiaga in the Wednesday, 17 April 2019 Presidential Elections. Let us realize #2019PrabowoPresiden (“#2019PrabowoPresident”) #IndonesiaMenang (“#IndonesiaWins”), and award our votes to support Legislative Candidates of the supporting political parties! Keep on watching, keep a tight guard on the C1 forms and Voting Points (Tempat Pemungutan Suara – “TPS”)! Let’s stay the night there and bring our own lunch boxes as Pak Prabowo has suggested to us, if necessary!

Elections should be a joy, not a parade of slander and hoaxes. Daring to be honest is amazing, and peace is beautiful.

SOCIAL CULTURE

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