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By the way ... Oh, shoot, my Facebook friends are racist and murderous!
âAre you @KawanAhok or @LawanAhok?â The Internet, once again, has asked me to make clear where I stand on a burning political issue
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'Are you @KawanAhok or @LawanAhok?' The Internet, once again, has asked me to make clear where I stand on a burning political issue.
To be honest, I don't know how to answer that.
The hashtags were created following Jakarta Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama's decision to evict people residing on the banks of Ciliwung River in Kampung Pulo, East Jakarta.
Supporters of the move, known as @KawanAhok, say the settlement is illegal and contributes to flooding. Its detractors, known as @LawanAhok, say the opposite.
Who is right? Well, I know too little to form a strong opinion about this issue, though I'm aware some people have taken it more seriously than others.
An activist friend posted on his wall a news item where Ahok was quoted as saying that he would kill 2,000 to save 10 million people, a chilling metaphor to justify his tough decision in Kampung Pulo. 'This is fascism,' my friend said, adding that whoever supported the 'illegal' eviction was supporting fascism.
My other friends furiously beg to differ. Ahok, they say, is a reformist. He's clean. Probably the most rational, no-nonsense and fearless politician we've ever had. The Kampung Pulo residents are completely in the wrong. They wonder: Isn't this obvious? And why ' with Ahok often being unfairly attacked for his race and religion ' aren't we giving him more support?
Differences of opinion are a natural thing. Some people say this, others say that. We've been doing this for a couple of millennia. But never have we been so deeply and bitterly polarized over political issues, even with those whom we consider our online friends. We have reached a point now that we are able to consider our online friends, even those closest to us, as heartless fascists who callously dismiss the destitute as ungrateful mooches.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not here to give another sermon about how Facebook is ruining our lives. I'm just saying that our social media lives have become more and more noisy, or irresistibly engaging, politically.
We are confronted by polemics on a daily basis and forced to redefine the way we see the world and our friends, whose political views are becoming more visible than ever.
In 2014, the presidential election divided us. Sadly, for some people, elections are never over. Like it or not, the bitter antagonism between the two sides lingers. When the fuel price was raised, we were fiercely divided again. And then came the great debate over the death penalty, during those tense moments when the government announced it would execute the Bali Nine convicts.
I'm personally for the abolition of this cruel form of punishment and it broke my heart when my friends expressed their support for it on Facebook.
I was upset to learn that some of my more liberal friends, who I had thought were defenders of human rights, sat on the fence, telling me, 'I don't have a strong opinion about this'.
Most of us may have some racist, bigoted friends (or even close relatives) who like to share conspiracy theories about President Joko Widodo, Governor Ahok and other minority groups from obscure hate mongering websites.
I have a friend from college ' I thought she was a sweet girl and one who would never ever hurt a fly ' who turned out to be a murderous little housewife on Facebook, regularly posting memes excusing the killings of Shias and Ahmadis.
You can 'unfriend' them, or ignore them or, if you are kind and patient enough, you can give them links to news items that debunk whatever mumbo jumbo they believe in. The thing is, what is true or false on the web is not always obvious. And some folks
just can't be 'unfriended' or ignored.
We wouldn't have this problem if we could just stop being self-righteous and taking everything so seriously. But on social media, where everyone is unforgivingly judgmental, that is easier said than done.
' Amir Hamzah
