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Jakarta Post

Young voters in Jakarta hope for better programs

Safrin La Batu (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Fri, February 3, 2017

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Young voters in Jakarta hope for better programs Jakarta gubernatorial candidate Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono speaks at the Young Voters Festival in Taman Ismail Marzuki in Central Jakarta on Feb. 1. (JP/Seto Wardhana)

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oung teacher Syamsul Maarif, 25, immediately raised his hand when an MC of the Young Voters Festival asked the audience for questions during the event that was held recently at Taman Ismail Marzuki (TIM) in Central Jakarta. The event was coorganized by the Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPU Jakarta) to encourage young people to vote in the Jakarta gubernatorial election on Feb. 15.

“How would you improve the living standards of young teachers who are active and energetic and have the same workloads as their seniors, but are paid less?” Syamsul asked Jakarta gubernatorial candidate Anies Baswedan.

Syamsul, a West Jakarta resident, has just started his teaching career at the Indonesian Education University (UPI) in Bandung, West Java. He said most of his fellow teachers, including those in Jakarta, had been expecting higher salaries and guaranteed pensions through the state-sponsored civil servant promotion scheme.

Toni, a 23-year-old private company worker who lives in Menteng, Central Jakarta, had a different concern. He said that he wanted to quit his job and start his own business, but did not have enough capital to realize his dream. Therefore, he urged the candidates to follow through on their promises to create entrepreneurship programs .

With less than two weeks remaining before the election, three candidate pairs running for the Jakarta election — Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono-Sylviana Murni, Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama-Djarot Saiful Hidayat and Anies Baswedan-Sandiaga Uno — are trying to woo young voters. This group is quite small in number, but they have significant influence on a candidate’s fate in the election as most of them are swing voters or undecided, KPU Jakarta reported.

In all, 28.9 percent of the 7 million registered voters in the city are aged between 16 and 30, while 10.7 percent of them are early voters, according to KPU Jakarta.

KPU Jakarta invited all candidates to the Young Voters Festival, which was held on Tuesday and Wednesday, to promote their programs. Agus-Sylvi attended the event on Tuesday, while Anies-Sandiaga attended on Wednesday. Ahok-Djarot, who were scheduled to speak on Wednesday, did not attend due to other commitments.

Besides promising to help young people in various employment sectors, the three candidate pairs all emphasize one thing: creating a supportive environment for young people to run businesses; a promise that makes sense given the recently booming entrepreneurial trend.

The Agus-Sylviana ticket, for instance, wants to create 100 entrepreneurship centers across Jakarta, while Ahok-Djarot want to create co-working spaces for young people to turn their ideas and creativity into businesses.

Anies-Sandiaga, on the other hand, have come up with the idea of establishing 44 business districts in the city and introducing a “dual-system program” for vocational high schools that would enable students to study two days at school and work three days in private industries.

“Jakarta has more industries than any other region in the country. Why shouldn’t we make use of them?” Anies said at a campaign event on Wednesday.

Anies, who is former culture and education minister, has spoken about education issues more than the other two candidates. For example, he said that he would allow universities in the city to use the city administration’s land to reduce operational costs and in turn tuition fees.

The youth-outreach programs offered by the three candidates, however, are considered “shallow” by many as they do not touch on the real problems, or are short on details.

Lia Toriana of Youth Proactive, an organization which engages young people in political literacy programs and corruption eradication efforts, told The Jakarta Post on Thursday that the candidates should not only focus on creating entrepreneurs. She urged candidates to focus more on creating comprehensive programs related to education. “Education is what young people need today,” Lia said, adding that candidates should create more detailed programs, including budget allocations for education.

Youth Proactive conducted research during the 2014 presidential election and found out that young people were mostly interested in candidates who could display “honesty” and a commitment to eradicating corruption. Showing a commitment to corruption eradication and good governance was likely to help candidates win the hearts of young voters along with presenting detailed programs on health care and education, Lia addded.

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