Syakirun Niam, Jakarta – A Kompas research and development (Litbang) survey has revealed that the public hopes that the political elite do not resort to identity politics as political campaign material during the 2024 legislative and presidential elections.
Litbang Kompas researcher Rangga Eka Sakti said that this hope emerged in concert with a sense of pessimism about political tolerance in the upcoming elections.
This was shown by 77.8 percent or three-quarters of respondents who were concerned that the attitude of mutual respect would fade in the 2024 elections.
"For the political elite, the public is holding out the hope that they don’t' use the issue of identity politics as political campaign material", said Sakti as quoted by the Kompas Daily on Monday November 14.
The public has also placed its hopes in the government to enforce this. One third of respondents asked that the government act firmly and strongly against parties which provoke disputes and intolerance.
Sakti said that the public's anxiety is being triggered by several issues. As many as 22 percent of respondents believe that intolerance can be created by politicians who frequently conduct unhealthy debates in the mass and social media.
Their anxiety has been reinforced by symptoms which resemble the 2019 elections, namely the widespread use of buzzers who utilise the issue of identity as a political object. "The high level of public anxiety must be taken as an alarm bell", said Sakti.
According to Sakti, strong and serious efforts are required by all groups to continue to maintain tolerance, including during the elections.
These feelings of pessimism dominate society despite the fact that three-quarters of respondents believe that Indonesian society holds tolerance in the highest respect.
"As a measure to mitigate this, the majority of respondents expressed the need to continue to remind society about conducting politics in a healthy manner", said Sakti.
The Litbang Kompas survey was carried out on November 8-10 by interviewing 512 randomly selected respondents in 34 provinces. The survey has 95 percent level of confidence, with a research non-sampling of approximately 4.33 percent in a simple random sampling condition. Nevertheless, errors outside the sampling are possible.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Litbang "Kompas": Masyarakat Harap Elite Tak Gunakan Politik Identitas pada Kampanye Pemilu 2024".]
