Vita A.D. Busyra & Josua Gantan – Eighteen-year-old Anis knows that there's a legislative election coming up soon, but she can't say when – April 9 – or how many parties are contesting it – 12.

"I've heard there are more than five political parties, but the only ones that are familiar to me are the Democratic Party, the Golkar, the National Democratic Party [NasDem] and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle [PDI-P]," she says. She adds she knows that the presidential election takes place on July 9.

Anis is one of around 21.8 million Indonesians who will be going to the ballot box for the first time ever this year. First-time voters, generally considered as those between the ages of 17 and 21, form a potent bloc out of the 186 million total registered voters, and those under the age of 29 account for 50 million voters.

But the distrust that these young voters tend to exhibit toward parties, and politics in general, is threatening to undermine voter turnout for the legislative election – which in turn determines which parties will be allowed to stand candidates for the presidential election.

Anis says she is "into truthful and responsible candidates, not those who woo the people with deceitful promises" – a common refrain among many voters, both first-time and seasoned.

"I'm not interested to know who the [legislative] candidates are because they merely present a political image," says Rendra, 19, who adds that he is considering not voting in the legislative poll and waiting instead for the presidential ballots. "They don't deserve my vote," he says of the legislative candidates.

"Besides, they can't even guarantee what they promise. And I already know who I'm going to vote for in the presidential election. It's someone who has good reputation all through his track record," he says, in an allusion to Joko Widodo, the governor of Jakarta and the presidential candidate from the PDI-P.

Possibility of change

The rise of fresh figures like Joko, popularly known as Jokowi, will play a significant role in drawing first-time voters to be more politically engaged, says Aleksius Jemadu, dean of Pelita Harapan University's School of Social and Political Sciences.

"The emergence of new figures such as Jokowi is important. In the eyes of youths, that guy has no lies. That can lift the participation level of the young voters," he says.

"I think it's more positive [now]. Seeing the possibility of change – through the emergence of leaders from a generation that is different from the 'old generation' – has given rise to enthusiasm among the youth."

Aleksius says that what can make first-time voters feel more politically engaged is the very real prospect that the election will bring about meaningful change in Indonesia. With that possibility now personified by Joko, who ushered in a series of sweeping reforms in the capital after winning the Jakarta gubernatorial election in 2012, the voter turnout, particularly among young and first-time voters, is unlikely to be low, Aleksius says.

"The proportion of people who won't vote isn't going to be significant this time around, because of the potential, the real possibility, for change at the national level," he says.

He adds that first-time voters who will participate in the election will do so "by supporting those who, in their view, can bring about change." "I think they will participate, although not all will," he says.

Political apathy

Aleksius, however, tempers his outlook with the caveat that political apathy runs deep among many first-time voters, who are often jaded with parties' empty rhetoric, the antics of elected officials, and the ceaseless stream of corruption cases involving members of the House of Representatives – 90 percent of whom are seeking re-election next month.

"They can see that to change Indonesia will not be easy. Their view is that their participation in the election will not bring about a huge effect that can effect change," he says. "The dissatisfaction is real, and their pessimism can be overwhelming."

Siti Zuhro, a political analyst at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), agrees that political apathy among young voters is a serious problem ahead of the polls.

"Why are first-time voters not interested? Because what they're most familiar with is the constant barrage of negative news about politicians," she says.

She says the media's blanket coverage of corruption scandals and other negative news involving elected officials has influenced first-time voters into seeing politics in a negative light. As a consequence, she says, they grow pessimistic about the role of politics in effecting meaningful change for the country, and become reluctant to vote or be engaged in politics in any way.

Lack of information

Siti also notes that some people will not turn up at polling stations simply because they lack the information they need to vote. "A lot of first-time voters simply don't understand the process," she says.

"They know that the election will be held on April 9, but they don't know who they are going to vote for. Many youths are ignorant. They're apathetic, they're not interested. That means the political education of the public has not been implemented as well as it could have been. They don't understand that this election is important to us."

Aleksius, though, discounts the notion that voter turnout among the young will be low because of a lack of information. "I don't think it's because of that," he says.

"The media has been going all out to cover news about the coming election. And young voters' access to information is high. With the wide availability of social media, they know who are the candidates that they can trust."

Siti suggests that voter turnout can be improved if voting is made compulsory by the government, citing Australia and Singapore as good examples of where mandatory voting policies are in use.

She also says that the youth voter apathy seen today could be a residual impact of the New Order government's policy of not allowing political discourse in schools and universities. "Also, back then, politics only reached the district level. It didn't seep down into the subdistrict level, let along the village level," Siti says.

Voter education

Campaigns to mobilize the youth vote are in full swing, and have been for several months now, many of them organized by youth voters themselves.

Pingkan Irwin, the founder of the Ayo Vote initiative, says that her organization has been trying to encourage Indonesia's youngsters to cast their vote by stressing that their influence does count and that the elections affect their lives as well.

"First, we try to find out the reason why these young voters are not interested in voting in either the legislative or presidential elections," she says.

"With their low level of awareness, many of them do not know that April 9 is actually for the legislative election, and they're unable to name how many parties are participating." Pingkan says the problem is "very deep-rooted."

"So we need to explain how the Indonesian political system works, which legislative council they're voting for and how they function," she says. "For instance, many of them do not know the difference between the House of Representatives [or DPR], the Jakarta City Council [DPRD] and the Regional Representatives Council [DPD]. How are they able to choose if they don't even know these differences?"

Pingkan says her organization tries to educate youths more about each political party, knowing full well how complex and overwhelming the Indonesian political system can be.

"So they need to know the reason for why they're voting and the kinds of information that they need to know, such as which electoral district they fall into and who the legislative candidates are for that district," she says.

Unfortunately, she says, Indonesian political parties are hard to distinguish by platform alone, and thus voters are encouraged to vote for an individual candidate who is more familiar to them, and not for the party.

"I'm concerned about young voters who vote merely based on the familiarity of the party name," Pingkan says. "We want them to vote for someone who is reliable before they finally come into a decision."

She notes that promoting Ayo Vote – which is affiliated with BeritaSatu Media Holdings, the parent company of the Jakarta Globe – has its own challenges because of the negative perception many young people have of political parties and politicians. "Educating [young voters] is hard because of the ingrained perception that Indonesian politics is dirty and corrupt," Pingkan says.

"Inviting them to our workshops at first was hard. We package the events in informal ways, to make [politics seem] approachable and not intimidating, though it's hard. So we still need a lot of ambassadors, we need more entertainment, because just talking about politics is boring."

Many universities, she points out, continue to prohibit seminars or workshops that discuss politics. "They think political issues are too sensitive to talk about," she says.

"One of our previous events that we held together with the Jakarta General Elections Commission [KPU Jakarta] and the Association for Elections and Democracy [Perludem] were almost canceled a day before the event was held, and we hadn't even planned to bring any politicians," Pingkan says.

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/buoyed-hope-indonesian-youths-rock-vote/