The simultaneous elections in 2024 are still quite a long way off, but the names of candidates for national leadership milestones continue to circulate. The names of the national leadership successors are present in the midst of the rush of issues related to postponing elections and extending the term of office of the president. How is the political map ahead of 2024? How does the public respond to crucial issues such as term extensions?
Some of these things are discussed in media discussions in person online with the main agenda of the release of survey results conducted by the Populi Center with a big theme “Political Map Ahead of the 2024 Simultaneous Elections”. The media discussion was held on Sunday (24/04/2022) at 13.00-14.30 by inviting several speakers, namely Prof. Ramlan Surbakti (Academician, Airlangga University), Melki Laka Lena (Member of the Indonesian Parliament, Golkar Fraction), and Rafif Pamenang Imawan (Researcher/Deputy Executive Director, Populi Center). The discussion was guided by Dimas Ramadhan (Researcher/ Policy Research Manager, Populi Center).
The discussion began with a presentation of the findings from the National Populi Center survey by Rafif Pamenang Imawan. The presentation is divided into three parts, namely an evaluation of the administrations of Joko Widodo and Ma'ruf Amin, current issues such as postponing elections and extending presidential terms, as well as the political map for 2024.
Responding to the release of a survey conducted by the Populi Center, Prof. Ramlan Surbakti highlighted the findings of the Populi Center survey regarding the proposed extension of the President's term of office into three terms. Based on survey findings, a majority of 64.4 percent of the public did not agree with extending the presidential term. Likewise with the discourse on postponing the 2024 elections, the majority (74.3 percent) of the public said they did not agree. According to him, this condition shows that people have a good understanding and maturity of democracy. "There are parallels in the understanding of the public with democracy according to the 1945 Constitution, especially those who reject the extension of the presidential term and the postponement of elections."
Regarding the background of the presidential candidate, Prof. Ramlan appreciated the findings of the Populi Center survey which stated that people do not care about ethnic background (Javanese and non-Javanese) for presidential candidates. According to him, this condition is an indicator of the better quality of democracy. "Public support for democracy is quite good, including the matter of not making a problem of candidates from Java and non-Javanese," he said.
Nonetheless, Prof. Ramlan regretted that the presidential and cawapres candidates who appeared in the survey findings, so far they still rely on popularity and electability while in terms of program issues they are still minimal. "Candidates need to bring up program issues, so they can provide political education to the public."
Another responder, Melki Laka Lena, stated that our society is quite clear about democracy in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even in the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic, people are still consistent in running democracy, including the matter of holding elections. "Society teaches us to obey the constitution," he said.
Melki regretted that some of the survey findings explained more about procedural democratic processes and minimal discussion of democracy in a substantial way. "Public opinion still sees politics in general as a procedural aspect, meaning that it is not too deep into seeing the real performance of political parties including candidates," he said. Melki further hopes that in the future there will be a need for a survey through more in-depth questions related to the substance of democracy including the role of political parties and politicians.
In addition, to strengthen substantial democracy, Melki proposed to election organizers that there should be issue/program-based candidate debates per level from the center to the regions, not only for candidates but also for political party debates. "KPU needs to think about debates per level, together with the political parties and their candidates so that the public is aware of issues at all levels," he said.
Rafif in the closing session of the discussion emphasized that the findings of this survey were still very early days considering that the implementation of the election was still quite a long way off. "The map is still very early, the journey is still quite long, there needs to be self-introduction of candidates with ideas for this nation and country," he said.
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