With young voters making up the majority of voters and the promise of a demographic bonus looming in the near future, the younger generation is set to take the spotlight in the 2024 general election. But political parties are so out of touch with the youth that even the nation’s younger politicians struggle to engage their peers.

The numbers do not look promising for political parties seeking to capture the support of the growing youth voting bloc. In a survey conducted in August, the Jakarta-based think tank Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) found while 63.8 percent of young voters, defined as those within the 17-39 age group, are still supportive of democracy, signs of discontent about the political system are starting to show.

More than 18 percent respondents are of the belief that democracy does not change anything, up from 10 percent in 2018. Trust in democratic institutions remains relatively low, with only 56.5 percent of respondents having a favorable opinion of the House of Representatives, the lowest among 11 institutions included in the poll.

This has left a serious problem for the parties.

Persistent problem

Generation Z, which makes up the majority of first-time voters, has been stereotypically portrayed as self-centered and politically apathetic, particularly to local or national party politics, but young politicians claim the limited political participation of young people in politics is in fact a cross-generational problem.      

Gerindra central executive board member Budisatrio Djiwandono, who first joined the party through its youth wing, Tunas Indonesia Raya (Tidar), recalled how hard it was to reach out to youth voters in the 17 to 25 age group when he first started out in 2008 as a 27-year-old.

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