Reading Millennial Voters' Voices

The millennial generation has a significant influence in the 2019 general election. With an age range of 17-35 years, the percentage of voters of this generation is estimated to reach 40% of the total number of voters. This group will be the key to seeing how the future government is formed and what they will do to oversee the government. Therefore, reading the following patterns of the characteristics of the millennial generation in Indonesia is important, considering that Indonesia will soon enter the demographic bonus era between 2020 and 2030.

How to read millennial voters both in terms of characteristics and political behavior? So, what should candidates do to gain votes from this generation? How can the potential demographic bonus be utilized to increase the productivity of this group in an economic framework? Populi Center held a Populi Forum with the theme "Reading the Voices of Millennial Voters" on Thursday, August 30, 2018. In this edition, the Populi Forum presented speakers Dedek Prayudi (PSI Youth Spokesperson) and Bhima Yudhistira (INDEF Economist). Dedek Prayudi said there are three main characteristics of the millennial generation. First, critical. Based on education level, millennials have a better educational background.

On the other hand, this group is also exposed to information because they are in the digital era. They have good knowledge about who the candidates are competing in the election. Not only knowing, because they are critical, millennials will know which arguments are built on data and which are novels or fiction. Second, apolitical. Millennials consider politics to have nothing to do with their lives directly. This is because their political identity is very low. Furthermore, Dedek said, this apolitical attitude is different from skepticism. Skepticism is an attitude that considers politics bad. Therefore, the type of millennial person is a type of young person who if someone wants to follow him, then that person must use the method they want. Therefore, if a political candidate wants to gain votes from the millennial generation, the candidate must use millennial language and must be able to answer their problems. "They want the leader's method to use millennial style. In general, we see Jokowi riding a motorbike and that is a cool young person's style. Mr. Sandi (Sandiaga Uno) also has a language that is also suitable for millennials compared to Mr. Prabowo," said Dedek.

Third, they like politics of hope and not politics of fear. Dedek explained that millennials like representatives and leaders who give hope. Hope that comes with a good understanding of development challenges and offers concrete solutions. This generation, he admitted, does not like a political style that prioritizes fear. For example, if you don't vote for me, Indonesia will be destroyed. This is proven by research from CSIS in 2017 which stated that millennials are optimistic. Millennials are optimistic about the future of the nation. Therefore, political candidates must understand the data and present optimism through programs and ideas. Dedek added that Indonesia is currently experiencing a demographic bonus and will peak in 2035. If it fails to take advantage of this period of a larger working-age population, chaos will occur like what happened in Pakistan with the Middle Income Trap or Arab Spring.

In this context, there needs to be women empowerment where in 2045 the BPS projects that Indonesia's population will reach 305 million and 31 percent of them will be women of productive age. In addition to women, the government must also empower young people. However, the most crucial thing is the absence of sectoral egos. Currently, according to Dedek, there is a mismatch between the demand and supply of labor for the needs of industry at the local level and the creative economy. "The economic potential in the district must be adjusted to the economic orientation in the district. Why are workers never included in designing the employment roadmap," he explained. Millennials in this case must also participate in the policy-making process as part of the crucial phase of the demographic bonus. Millennials are no longer just objects of elections, but must also be subjects of development. Bhima Yudhistira, Economist at INDEF, emphasized the change in the economic trend of the millennial generation. Throughout 2017, almost all department stores from the lower to the upper levels complained about a significant decline in sales turnover. Household consumption experienced a decline in growth of below 5 percent. Looking at BPS data, the growth of transportation and communication consumption in 2017 experienced the highest growth. In Q3 2017, the growth of this sector annually (year on year) was recorded at 5.86 percent. Meanwhile, the growth of food consumption was 5.04 percent and clothing consumption was 2 percent.

According to Bhima, there is a tendency for young millennials to hold back from buying clothes and prefer to travel. This is proven by Airbnb in 2016 which stated that 70 percent of millennials want more time to travel and there is a fairly large expenditure for Asians to travel compared to Europeans and Americans. The character of young millennials who are identical to information technology then produces new heroes who enter the startup realm. "Rich people used to need 20-30 years to enter FORBES with a long journey. Currently there is a generation of young people under 30 years old with startup businesses that enter FORBES. This is a new idol whose emergence marks the presence of millennials," explained Bhima. The demographic bonus that will peak in 2030 needs to be addressed with serious management. How can young millennials be part of the correct management of the economy. Based on Bappenas data, Indonesia ranks fourth as the country with the largest productive age in 2015, below China, India, and America.

Indonesia's competitiveness is also increasingly competitive where the Global Competitiveness Index 2017-2018 Indonesia is ranked 36th out of 138 countries. However, this competitive level is not in line with innovation. Indonesia's Global Innovation Index in 2017 was ranked 87th. This condition then made Gojek, one of which, because of the lack of skills of young Indonesians, then recruit programmers from Bangalore India to strengthen the Gojek application technology. Bhima admitted that Indonesia must have a good planning strategy like China. In this case, China has implemented a fairly comprehensive strategy. For young people who have high skills, the government has created Silicon Valley China, namely in Shenzhen. This program is fully subsidized by the local and central governments. On the other hand, for marginalized people such as unskilled laborers who lack skills and education, the government has prepared Taobao Village. "One village contains 50 Heads of Families and they employ their family members to produce goods through (online services) Taobao and Alibaba," he concluded.