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Jakarta Post

Life must go on

Editorial Board (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Tue, April 23, 2019

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Life must go on The Rajut Kejut knitting community pose together during Car Free Day on Jl. Sudirman, Central Jakarta, on Sunday. The group initiated an event called “Knitting Diversity” to encourage citizens to defuse conflict following the divisive election campaign and voting last week. (The Jakarta Post/Seto Wardhana)

T

he dust seems not to have settled after the bitterly contested elections last week. Acrimony between supporters of the two presidential candidate pairs is far from subsiding, at least in cyberspace, with each one claiming victory over the other.

There is no sign that the political elite will bury the hatchet anytime soon either. Reports have it that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo instructed Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan to visit presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, but the initiative failed for a variety of reasons.

One may look at the prolonged standoff with anxiety, if not fear. Anything, including violence, could happen between today and May 22, when the General Elections Commission (KPU) announces the results of the simultaneous presidential and legislative elections. Yet, even these results cannot be considered final and binding as candidates are allowed to challenge them at the Constitutional Court, the process of which will only conclude in June for the legislative elections and in August for the presidential election.

Technically, this legal uncertainty could linger for at least the coming four months, which is a long period to keep the animosity alive or to whip up the idea that the elections were rigged in a structured, systematic and massive manner and therefore were illegitimate.

Thank God not everybody shares such gloom. Industry players are largely unperturbed by the elections and the ensuing political dynamics. Even a businessman who openly supports candidate Prabowo, Erwin Aksa, for example, told the media the fact that the elections ran peacefully in general already provided enough confidence for businesspeople that the much-needed political stability would remain intact.

There was a semblance of normal life in Jakarta and elsewhere in the country a few days after the voting on April 17. On Monday workers flocked to factories and businesses, government offices resumed public services and traders filled traditional markets with basic commodities, putting the grueling elections and candidates they voted for behind them.

They seemed to care little about any plan to deploy “people power” to question the credibility of the KPU or to push for election results to go in their favor. They, too, largely ignored premature declarations of victory by any candidate.

We cannot know what exactly is on the minds of the people in response to the post-election dynamics; the protracted squabbling is more evident on social media. It does not matter if the KPU eventually confirms the quick count results, most people will find that life must go on.

As the battle between political elites takes a new twist, people at the grass roots face the reality that they have mouths to feed and lives to protect. It is this routine that will preserve the people’s sanity and spare them from any worst-case scenario that may arise from the elections.

But democracy also demands statesmanship among the elite. It is time to stop the unnecessary brouhaha as the election was simply a part of the five-yearly cycle.

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