Topping the list was the political tension that colored the Jakarta gubernatorial election. A popular and effective governor with an approval rating of 76 percent managed to lose by a 15 percent margin to a challenger without an original program, but who capitalized on religious sentiments. The campaign did not deal with the issues and did not produce a winner, just a loser. The incumbent not only lost the election but was tried for blasphemy, then convicted and imprisoned with no evidence. Obviously it was politics. It happens.

Many have analyzed why this happened. Did those who lost wage the wrong campaign? More importantly, what has to be done to prevent this? The gubernatorial election was not just a process ending in the selection of the new governor. It could be a grand rehearsal for elections yet to come, like the presidential election.

The tools of campaigning and persuasion, the alliances and funding mechanism, have been honed to a fine detail in the Jakarta elections. There’s every possibility that the same tools could be used to push through the presidential candidates preferred by the people who won Jakarta. In a democracy elections can yield any result. We have seen that in the United States; we have seen that in Brexit. Not always do the forces and voices of negativism prevail and win the day. At least France and the Netherlands have used elections to reaffirm their faith in their core values, and emerged as stronger states.

In Indonesia, the core values since we were born as a nation are informal but deep. It is a climate of pluralism, tolerance and mutual respect with a few exceptions. Religions, ethnicity and geography have not had too much say in the way people voted. People say Indonesia is a young nation but it is actually almost 72 years old. It could be called “mature” or it could just be called “old.”

Old age has its blessings but it brings a self-serving and exclusive way of seeing the nation to the point that we forget that diversity is the key to our survival. A nation as diverse geographically and ethnically as Indonesia could not have survived if it were forced to live under binding unified leadership. Sure we have had strong persons as leaders. Some overly strong. But they have operated in a society of pluralism and eclecticism that has found a way to deal with adversity. There is strength of the community, of being together.

A study released on Sunday by the reputable Saiful Mujani Research Consultants (SMRC) found that 79.3 percent of respondents prefer the Indonesian state as it is now, based on the 1945 Constitution. It features Pancasila, the national ideology, which is based on diversity. Religions and ethnic origins are protected by the state, which separates state and religion.

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