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‘Political warm-up ahead of 2024’: PDI-P’s opponents play communism card
So-called “buzzers” – semi-anonymous online trolls – have tried to stir up a red scare over a Pancasila bill.
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So-called “buzzers” – semi-anonymous online trolls – tried to stir up a red scare over a Pancasila bill. (JP/Zul Trio Anggono )
T
he national elections are four years away, but the Indonesian political scene, especially in the digital realm, has seen mudslinging and simmering tension between parties. The most recent target of this anger has been the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) over a bill on Pancasila, the national ideology.
So-called “buzzers” – semi-anonymous online trolls – played the infamous communism card against the PDI-P after the party proposed a bill that would regulate Pancasila and create an agency to interpret the ideology.
On June 24, protesters at a rally organized by the 212 Alumni Brotherhood (PA 212) burned the PDI-P’s flag on the street in front of the House of Representatives in Jakarta. They had assembled to protest the Pancasila ideological guidelines bill, alleging that it would open the door to communism in the country.
The group was founded by some of the protesters who opposed former Jakarta governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, who is now a PDI-P politician.
PDI-P members throughout the country reported the incident to the police. But not long after, in what appeared to be a coordinated attack, social media users spread rumors that the party was a communist instrument and was against Islam.
For example, Twitter user @SorotMata212 posted, “Yet again, the PDI-P has defended communism,” on June 28. On the same day, Twitter user @ChristWamena associated the PDI-P with the now-defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), which supported the government of former president Sukarno, Megawati’s father. The user posted, “The people have objected to the Pancasila bill, but confusingly, the PDI-P has instead attacked the caliphate. It turns out that the PDI-P needs the PKI.”
Buzzers also made several anti-PDI-P hashtags popular, one of which was #PDIPinisiatorRUUHIP (the PDI-P is the initiator of the Pancasila bill). It trended on Indonesian Twitter on June 27.
