Despite of having earned the right to vote since 8 years ago, I have never voted before.
I was out of the city for a few years. I believe I have missed two voting periods (Presidency and Mayor) before, and now I finally contributed to my first vote ever to this city's Mayor!
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Cute purple pinky~
I just woke up and immediately voted without showering so.. Consider I save your eyes from unsightly picture of me?
Oh!
Have I told you before that I am so immersed in Indonesian politics recently?
Not sure why, but I understand it very well that the current politic dilemma here is extremely interesting. I think it is probably because the people responding and reacting to it are mostly millennial like me.
I can say generally we all are almost naturally sarcastic and we have basic skill of social media.
Almost naturally sarcastic + basic skill of social media = flood of memes, being unafraid of authority, more free and braver, thus more voices are raised.
Sad to say that Indonesia doesn't have high rank in Index of Press Freedom but so far I have been knowing that the freedom of creating memes out of our politicians (even the ones that are extremely rude) is quite high.
They just appear from everywhere. Which is nice. My kind of daily humour. I enjoy it myself, I don't share it to people though, not the ones I am not close with. Politic view is a very sensitive issue right?
The high number of all these posts tell me that nowadays there are so many millennial with skills mentioned above are interested in politics here.
Including me? I guess.
I enjoy it, I really do. I spend almost everyday reading news (and the comment threads) of politic section. It is my source of entertainment. And I learn a lot from it.
Why, you would ask?
Because Indonesia is currently undergoing an extremely huge change at the moment. I might be oblivious before, it might have happened for a while, or it is just sparking now, or I just pick the interest recently..
But really, I think there are amazing things happened in between our politicians and government.
Clean people start to emerge. They start to appear here and there.
The stereotype about politicians is that no politician is clean. I grow up with that on my mind, but things that happened recently change my mind for some time now.
I start to see really clean politicians who serve the citizens really well and unfold some really nasty practices that happened many years back. Really, not really? We'll see in the future.
Wow, very brave aren't they?
Some notable clean people appears, and many brainy Indonesians are brave enough to show their support. I think the reason why these (so far) clean politicians start to appear is that more people are less afraid of authority and they start to think from another point of view: politicians are not rulers, they work for citizens, they are citizen's servant (pemerintah adalah pelayan rakyat).
When we, citizens, start to realise that we all have the right and the power to decide and elect who will help us to have a good life in this country, we will have cooler mind and we will surely elect and vote for politicians who actually wants to help us, serve us.
Election is that simple actually, I think.
Politicians are really good in their talk. Twisting words, making it sounds like they have really complicated plans and solutions to help us.. There is nothing candidates can do except delivering their vision in words. This is the tricky part. How to know which one to trust?
Actually, I think it is not that tricky. It needs a trick, though.
Pay attention to some generic words like:
"We will do our best to.."
"We are going to.."
"We believe everyone will.."
"Together, we will.."
I know this is slightly unfair, but those words are my first layer of filter to judge them. This kind of "kind speaking" gives us an idea about what they are thinking about us.
Next, try to find some feasible and doable things they say they are going to do. This needs quite some mind to work on:
"We will help you in finding solutions about high price of housings."
"We will solve the flood issues."
"We will reduce the price of gas."
"We will give lower-income people medium to train their skills."
Sounds good enough to elect this candidate?
Now I'll cut that deeper:
"...help you in finding solutions about high price of housings..." How, to be exact?
By opening consultation corner?
By analysis?
"...solve the flood issues..." How?
By asking the shaman to stop the rain?
By finding a water bender to control the flood?
"...reduce the price of gas..." How?
By using natural gas, cow farts?
By increasing price of other commodities?
"...give lower-income people medium to train their skills..." How?
By opening free classes? Then, how to pay the tutors?
By using rich people's tax money? Then, how to build the country if the taxes are used to pay tutors?
How?!?!?!?!
See how raw and floating those words are?
Those are my second filter in scoring politicians.
On the other hand, I am looking for politicians who say actual feasible and doable things they are going to do.
This might be delusional, but if they are saying things like:
"We will do a survey to lower-income people to manage them and their right of housing. Based on the survey, we will prioritize in who to be subsided for affordable housing by rent, and helping them and their education by giving them easy tunnels to jobs that will be needed in the city so that they will be able to find better jobs once they are graduated and eligible to find proper job. Etc etc etc etc."
"We will solve the flood issues by cleaning the river, moving the people living on the edge of rivers to housings we built (with extremely cheap rent) with all of the facilities. Once the river is clear enough, we will strengthen it and maintain it by building strong walls or with the help of cleaners we will hire to patrol every now and then so that it won't flood. We will fine people who throw rubbish on the river severely and educate everyone to throw rubbish on its places. Etc etc etc etc."
Those might sound silly or not doable but what I want to give pressure here is that those are not generic words of "helping you" and "doing our best" like that la.
See underlined sentences. By showing the actual thing they want to do, that is one thing that we are able to put weight on.
Although it is still not easy to decide.. So never put all eggs in one basket when it is regarding politics. That can be a double-edged sword, ya know.
If we are paying enough attention, to find such candidate that can express what they want to do to serve citizens and their actual feasible and doable vision to us, it is not a hard thing to do. Really!
But if we are blinded with sweet promises, with unrecognised pressure and fear pressed on us, or the worst: with easy money, it will be multiple times harder.
The most important thing is: it all means absolutely NOTHING if all of those good talks (even after filters) aren't followed by real actions. Even the cleanest politician with awesome visions, s/he has to make everything that comes out from his mouth real. Execute the action and fulfill those promises.
Otherwise, it all means nothing.
It is a gamble, right?
So, can we open our mind, eyes and ears to choose who to help managing us and serving us?
Which one is more important: easy temporary money (to be fined, jailed, and tainted name) or having politicians who will help us and serve us the feasible and doable way?
It sounds like an easy question, but it is hard to answer, right, greedy people?
Lots of love ♥
I was out of the city for a few years. I believe I have missed two voting periods (Presidency and Mayor) before, and now I finally contributed to my first vote ever to this city's Mayor!
Cute purple pinky~
I just woke up and immediately voted without showering so.. Consider I save your eyes from unsightly picture of me?
Oh!
Have I told you before that I am so immersed in Indonesian politics recently?
Not sure why, but I understand it very well that the current politic dilemma here is extremely interesting. I think it is probably because the people responding and reacting to it are mostly millennial like me.
I can say generally we all are almost naturally sarcastic and we have basic skill of social media.
Almost naturally sarcastic + basic skill of social media = flood of memes, being unafraid of authority, more free and braver, thus more voices are raised.
Sad to say that Indonesia doesn't have high rank in Index of Press Freedom but so far I have been knowing that the freedom of creating memes out of our politicians (even the ones that are extremely rude) is quite high.
They just appear from everywhere. Which is nice. My kind of daily humour. I enjoy it myself, I don't share it to people though, not the ones I am not close with. Politic view is a very sensitive issue right?
The high number of all these posts tell me that nowadays there are so many millennial with skills mentioned above are interested in politics here.
Including me? I guess.
I enjoy it, I really do. I spend almost everyday reading news (and the comment threads) of politic section. It is my source of entertainment. And I learn a lot from it.
Why, you would ask?
Because Indonesia is currently undergoing an extremely huge change at the moment. I might be oblivious before, it might have happened for a while, or it is just sparking now, or I just pick the interest recently..
But really, I think there are amazing things happened in between our politicians and government.
Clean people start to emerge. They start to appear here and there.
The stereotype about politicians is that no politician is clean. I grow up with that on my mind, but things that happened recently change my mind for some time now.
I start to see really clean politicians who serve the citizens really well and unfold some really nasty practices that happened many years back. Really, not really? We'll see in the future.
Wow, very brave aren't they?
Some notable clean people appears, and many brainy Indonesians are brave enough to show their support. I think the reason why these (so far) clean politicians start to appear is that more people are less afraid of authority and they start to think from another point of view: politicians are not rulers, they work for citizens, they are citizen's servant (pemerintah adalah pelayan rakyat).
When we, citizens, start to realise that we all have the right and the power to decide and elect who will help us to have a good life in this country, we will have cooler mind and we will surely elect and vote for politicians who actually wants to help us, serve us.
Election is that simple actually, I think.
Politicians are really good in their talk. Twisting words, making it sounds like they have really complicated plans and solutions to help us.. There is nothing candidates can do except delivering their vision in words. This is the tricky part. How to know which one to trust?
Actually, I think it is not that tricky. It needs a trick, though.
Pay attention to some generic words like:
"We will do our best to.."
"We are going to.."
"We believe everyone will.."
"Together, we will.."
I know this is slightly unfair, but those words are my first layer of filter to judge them. This kind of "kind speaking" gives us an idea about what they are thinking about us.
Next, try to find some feasible and doable things they say they are going to do. This needs quite some mind to work on:
"We will help you in finding solutions about high price of housings."
"We will solve the flood issues."
"We will reduce the price of gas."
"We will give lower-income people medium to train their skills."
Sounds good enough to elect this candidate?
Now I'll cut that deeper:
"...help you in finding solutions about high price of housings..." How, to be exact?
By opening consultation corner?
By analysis?
"...solve the flood issues..." How?
By asking the shaman to stop the rain?
By finding a water bender to control the flood?
"...reduce the price of gas..." How?
By using natural gas, cow farts?
By increasing price of other commodities?
"...give lower-income people medium to train their skills..." How?
By opening free classes? Then, how to pay the tutors?
By using rich people's tax money? Then, how to build the country if the taxes are used to pay tutors?
How?!?!?!?!
See how raw and floating those words are?
Those are my second filter in scoring politicians.
On the other hand, I am looking for politicians who say actual feasible and doable things they are going to do.
This might be delusional, but if they are saying things like:
"We will do a survey to lower-income people to manage them and their right of housing. Based on the survey, we will prioritize in who to be subsided for affordable housing by rent, and helping them and their education by giving them easy tunnels to jobs that will be needed in the city so that they will be able to find better jobs once they are graduated and eligible to find proper job. Etc etc etc etc."
"We will solve the flood issues by cleaning the river, moving the people living on the edge of rivers to housings we built (with extremely cheap rent) with all of the facilities. Once the river is clear enough, we will strengthen it and maintain it by building strong walls or with the help of cleaners we will hire to patrol every now and then so that it won't flood. We will fine people who throw rubbish on the river severely and educate everyone to throw rubbish on its places. Etc etc etc etc."
Those might sound silly or not doable but what I want to give pressure here is that those are not generic words of "helping you" and "doing our best" like that la.
See underlined sentences. By showing the actual thing they want to do, that is one thing that we are able to put weight on.
Although it is still not easy to decide.. So never put all eggs in one basket when it is regarding politics. That can be a double-edged sword, ya know.
If we are paying enough attention, to find such candidate that can express what they want to do to serve citizens and their actual feasible and doable vision to us, it is not a hard thing to do. Really!
But if we are blinded with sweet promises, with unrecognised pressure and fear pressed on us, or the worst: with easy money, it will be multiple times harder.
The most important thing is: it all means absolutely NOTHING if all of those good talks (even after filters) aren't followed by real actions. Even the cleanest politician with awesome visions, s/he has to make everything that comes out from his mouth real. Execute the action and fulfill those promises.
Otherwise, it all means nothing.
It is a gamble, right?
So, can we open our mind, eyes and ears to choose who to help managing us and serving us?
Which one is more important: easy temporary money (to be fined, jailed, and tainted name) or having politicians who will help us and serve us the feasible and doable way?
It sounds like an easy question, but it is hard to answer, right, greedy people?
Lots of love ♥