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Concede defeat for peace
While most early-warning research in Indonesia has been focused on natural disasters such as tsunamis and volcano eruptions, there has been little discussion of human-made hazards such as terrorism, riots and civil unrest
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span>While most early-warning research in Indonesia has been focused on natural disasters such as tsunamis and volcano eruptions, there has been little discussion of human-made hazards such as terrorism, riots and civil unrest.
At the regional level, ASEAN has set up an intelligence information-sharing mechanism called Our Eyes Intelligence Initiative, which serves as an early-warning system to detect terrorist attacks.
At the national level, the Indonesian police have also established a system to preempt terrorist attacks, including a plot to bomb the General Elections Commission (KPU) office when it announced the election result, originally slated for May 22.
The police arrested dozens of terrorist suspects in a series of operations in a number of cities, while deploying troop reinforcements to Jakarta to anticipate mass rallies in protest at the election result.
Clashes between protesters and the police erupted on May 21 and 22 in several areas in Central and West Jakarta. Quite apart from the number of lives lost, the price we will have to pay for the violence is huge.
Learning from the two-day unrest in Jakarta, one of the best early-warning mechanisms to prevent or minimize the impacts of human-made hazards following the election is a concession of defeat by the losing candidate and the passing on of congratulations to the winner. A concession speech creates a favorable environment and eases tension as proven in many other countries.
When the KPU announced the election result early on May 21, the opposition leader Prabowo Subianto, who lost to incumbent President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, immediately refused to concede defeat and insisted on challenging the election result to the Constitutional Court, citing alleged massive fraud. In a democracy, a concession speech is part of the code of ethics that politicians share. It is a signal of political maturity.
A concession speech is about respecting the election result and national unity, but in Indonesia, dubbed the third-largest democracy, the practice is largely absent.
A political theorist and historian, Paul Corcoran, says an ideal concession speech starts with congratulating the winner, followed by a call for unity and support for the winner and ending with a pledge to fight for his/her causes in the future.
United States’ democracy is undoubtedly a good reference for Indonesia and other democracies. The political tradition of conceding defeat in the US dated back in 1896 when William Jennings Bryan sent the elected president William McKinley a congratulatory telegram. In 1968, Hubert Humphrey phoned victorious Richard Nixon for a concession message. In the latest presidential race, Hillary Clinton spoke on television to concede her defeat to Donald Trump.
Without a concession speech after the April 16, 2011 election which was won by the incumbent Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian from the Niger Delta in the south, riots erupted in Nigeria. Human Rights Watch reported that Muslim rioters attacked police stations and ruling party and electoral commission offices in the unrest. At least 170 Christians were killed, hundreds were injured and thousands were displaced in the postelection violence.
It is ironic that a predominantly Muslim country and a great democracy like Indonesia has not instilled such a dignified practice into its political culture, whilst it could have played a role model for other developing nations that have faith in democracy.
In fact, former Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (Ahok) should be regarded as a champion of democracy as he delivered a concession speech after losing the race to Anies Baswedan in 2017. Ahok set a good example to Indonesian politicians through his memorable remarks. “To our supporters, I know you are sad, but this is the will of God. We still have six months to finish our work, and we will do our best,” he said (Al Jazeera America, April 19, 2017).
Another example most recently came from the newcomer Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) after failing to achieve the 4 percent legislative threshold. PSI chairwoman Grace Natalie publicly thanked those who had voted for the party and gracefully accepted the defeat.
A concession speech provides a sense of stability, peace and acceptance of the election result. It can help ease tension and build public trust in the elected government. Conceding defeat is not only a show of statesmanship, but also a political mechanism to prevent postelection violence and destruction.
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Mujiburrahman is a research associate at the Institute of Resource Governance and Social Change, Jakarta. Musa Maliki is a lecturer of International Relations at UPN Veteran, Jakarta. Both are pursuing PhD degrees at Charles Darwin University, Australia.
