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Cracking the ‘golput’ code
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A man passes advertising columns standing side by side in front of the Communications and Information Ministry on Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat in Central Jakarta. The posters ask voters to inform themselves on legislative and presidential candidates before the election on April 17. (The Jakarta Post/Dhoni Setiawan)
T
here has been much attention on and criticism of declared “nonvoters” or abstainers, known as golput (named after ballots marked outside valid choices) in the run-up to the April presidential election.
Among those warning against golput are Patrick Ziegenhein and the philosopher Franz “Romo” Magnis-Suseno, writing for The Jakarta Post and Kompas, respectively.
The term refers to the act of not voting for any of the presidential candidates. Golput can affect both candidates but is widely perceived to threaten the incumbent President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo the most.
According to an article by Max Lane in South China Morning Post, a segment of the political public — those particularly concerned about the rule of law, democracy and human rights — is disappointed with Jokowi’s performance.
Many of them would never consider voting for his rival Prabowo Subianto, a former three-star general widely believed to be responsible for the kidnapping and killing of student protesters under Soeharto.
Consequently, among this segment of the population, high golput numbers are bad for Jokowi. Jokowi has asked his supporters to convince others not to choose golput.
“Choose the lesser evil”, a number of commentators have told us, “otherwise democracy will lose”. Franz even claims that anyone doing otherwise would be either mentally weak, morally flawed or just plain stupid.
