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Our post-election homework: Consolidating civil society
Under the term kritik solutif dan santun (solutional and polite criticism), opinions are often shut down and delegitimized.
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Youth voice: Students of various universities across Greater Surakarta rally outside the mayor’s office in Surakarta, Central Java on Feb. 8, 2024 to demand that state apparatus maintain impartiality for the sake of free and fair elections. (Antara/Mohammad Ayudha)
Contrary to popular belief, Indonesian democracy has never been about who wins elections. It has always been about how its civil society has flourished and become resilient even under an authoritarian regime. Indonesian democracy is its civil society.
This was the situation even during the New Order. While Soeharto's regime limited the ability of people to participate in politics, civil society was still strong, even if it existed underground.
Reform in May 1998 brought new life (and hope) to Indonesian democracy, where people had more access to political participation through media, creating organizations and even political parties. With the rise of the internet, our democracy has flourished even more: it allows us to participate in political discourse through social media discussion without leaving our homes.
However, for the past 10 years, we have been experiencing a paradox in our civic space. The internet and social media have given us a vast space to speak our minds, but it has been shrinking simultaneously.
Social media and its accessibility have enabled more people to participate in policy and political discourse. At the same time, however, these discourses are diluted with anonymous “buzzers”, often paid by those in power to change the narrative in social media.
Under the term kritik solutif dan santun (solutional and polite criticism), opinions are often shut down and delegitimized. The urgency of problems is often played down under the euphemism of this polite and solutional criticism.
Sadly, this mindset is not only being pursued by the elites in the government (because, obviously, for them, it is beneficial to keep control), but most Indonesian citizens have also accepted it. We tend to self-censor ourselves now. We walk on eggshells because if we misspeak once, we will be reported under the draconian Information and Electronic Transactions (ITE) Law.
