How severe will the damage be if either you or your parents are accused of being communists without any evidence?

September used to give politicians an opportunity to slander their opponents as communists, perhaps because it is when the nation commemorates the abortive coup on Sept. 30, 1965, blamed on the now outlawed Indonesian communist Party (PKI). This dirty tactic must stop, especially as the country prepares for the general election that takes place in less than five months.

The two previous elections in 2014 and 2019 proved how devastating the impacts of such slander were to not only the candidates, but also national unity and cohesion.

At the end of this month, we will mark the 58^th anniversary of the political event that led to the fall of Sukarno and the rise of Soeharto’s New Order.

After the Cold War ended in the early 1990s, many communist governments collapsed and the ideology’s real power severely declined. Talk to any Chinese, Vietnamese or Russian national today, and you might be surprised to learn that their description of communism has changed from the ideology their grandparents believed in as a tool of nation unity.

But this general trend has not been replicated in Indonesia. Here, the ghost of communism still haunts many who are eager to silence their rivals or assassinate their characters.

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo is a living witness to the popularity of the cheap political strategy.

Many of those who wielded this tactic were supporters of Prabowo Subianto, who lost to Jokowi in both 2014 and 2019. They spread fake news about Jokowi being a son of a communist or being a communist himself, although he was only 4 years old in 1965.

The list of baseless accusations against Jokowi also included those alleging he was of Chinese ethnicity and a Christian denomination.

During Soeharto’s 32-year dictatorship, being linked to the PKI, even without any evidence, basically meant an end to the accused’s life as they knew it. Their lives and careers were destroyed, as were their children’s.

Until now, Jokowi continues to face accusations of being a communist, perhaps because of his foreign policy stance that has brought Indonesia close to China. The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), of which he is a member, is also often accused of being the PKI reborn.

"I am always accused of being a communist," the President said in 2019 during the presidential debate with Prabowo, who responded quickly, "I was also regularly accused of being the supporter of the [Islamic] caliphate.”

Many of Prabowo's supporters openly expressed their endorsement for turning Indonesia into an Islamic country, believing that this would lead the nation to justice and prosperity.

Many politicians frequently warn the nation that communism is a latent threat. This month, many TV stations aired Soeharto's propaganda film Pengkhianatan G30S PKI (The PKI’s betrayal), recalling how the movie was mandatory viewing for students during the New Order.

When President Jokowi suggested updating the movie to reach out to millennials, his critics condemned him and renewed their past allegations about him.

September this year has been a bit strange. It is likely that, for the first time in many decades, I am hearing very few warnings about the PKI’s revival. Is this because anticommunists have finally repented after telling so many lies to the people?

But trust me, the mentality of such people will never change. They are simply waiting for the right moment to strike back, because they know communism is still a powerful tool to silence their rivals and attack their critics.

Instead of the return of communism, I believe that corruption and abuse of power are the real threats to the country, and must be addressed by whoever succeeds Jokowi next year.

Three figures will likely contest the 2024 presidential election: Defense Minister and Gerindra Party chair Prabowo, former Central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo and former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan.

Prabowo recently complained that every time he bid for the presidency, allegations would resurface that he was involved in kidnapping activists and gross human rights abuses in the late 1990s, when nationwide demonstrations erupted to force his former father-in-law Soeharto to step down. This year is no exception.

How did people respond to this? "The kidnapping allegations had emerged before the suspected kidnapper surfaced.” Prabowo’s military career came to an end in 1998, when the military ethics council found him guilty of breaking the law, violating human rights and disobeying orders.

Prabowo is not alone in being the target of character assassination.

Ganjar has faced the most ridiculous allegation of being a porn addict. The more serious accusation, though, is that he will become the puppet of PDI-P chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri if he wins the election.

Similarly, Anies is also facing stigmatization as a politician with a penchant for identity politics due to his victory in the 2017 Jakarta election. That contest is deemed as the most divisive, as hard-line Muslims organized a movement against then-incumbent governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, a Christian and Chinese-Indonesian who was running for reelection, and was eventually convicted under the Blasphemy Law.

Sadly, Anies has done not enough to cut his links with Muslim hard-liners, and his accusers say he will repeat the strategy during the 2024 presidential race and again divide the nation.

Hopefully such raucous, slanderous actions will not be repeated ahead of next year’s elections. Let the candidates turn 2024 into a contest of bright ideas about how to better the nation, so only the best will win the hearts – and votes – of the people.

Unless we remove all such dirty tactics, our democracy will never mature.

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The writer is senior editor at The Jakarta Post.