A Candle in The Dark

From times to times, young people’s understanding of the socio-political issues always varied, but they are united in their participation: all hope for a better world. To better understand today’s youth movement, we need to look at its rich history throughout different eras.

Petrus Yosef Putut wants to win over an argument. For that to happen, he needs a lot more information on the issue from his staffs. Putut, your typical young activist in his early twenties, has recently joined FISIP UI’s student body as the Political and Social Coordinator. He is tasked with coordinating and guiding works of several bureaus which fall into that category. Nowadays, he is very concerned with his staffs’ ability to produce scientifically legitimate analyses on current issues. 

“The needs to write strong scientific research has become more urgent now more than ever. Take the case of Semen Indonesia in Kendeng, it is absurd that so many young people are opposing them but almost none of them use the fact that cement are an overpriced commodity, according to the government themselves in 2016, in their writing.” He said. He further added, “and you can count my staffs among them. Well to be honest, they are rather lazy when it comes to reading.”

In 2012, UNESCO conducted a research in Indonesia to determine Indonesian’s literacy rate. They found that Indonesian’s literary level is actually the second lowest compared to other countries, with the ratio being 0,0001. It means that only one in a thousand Indonesian developed reading habit. Furthermore, a data from BPS, which came from the same period as the research by UNESCO, stated that 17,66% have interest in reading while 91,67% prefers watching television shows. Those are quite problematic figures in terms of literacy.

Are things always like this with young Indonesians? Many people like Mohammad Zaki Hussein does not think so. Zaki is not a stranger to youth activism. During the turbulent last years of the New Order, He joined the student movements that managed to topple the twelve years old regime of Soeharto. At the time, he represented the student body of University of Indonesia (UI) within Jakarta’s protests scene. “Most of us participate through youth organizations. But there were also some of us who were brave enough to form alternative political parties, against Soeharto’s policy of limiting them to only three parties.” he said, reminiscing. “So participation in the 90s were mostly through certain organizations, in which the activities included advocationg for labour’s rights, victims of forced eviction.” he told me. Nowadays, he is busy with his works as a researcher at Inkrispena, a Jakarta-based research firm, while he also helps out Indoprogress as an editor. His recent works is an analysis on the correlation between palm industry and land grabbing phenomena.

Bayu Baskoro Febrianto, a 22 years old alumnus of UI’s History Studies, shared similar things when he was asked about youth’s political participation during the heights of the New Order government. The head editor of Shortir explains that young people during the New Order era represented mostly through, “mass protest, because at the time the New Order were actually facilitating them while at the same time silencing various grass-root movement from other sectors, to strengthen their international standing as a democratic country.” Although he noted that during the reign of the brutally repressive regime, youth’s participation in politics “were obviously low in general, compared to today’s situation.”

After the Malari Incident, Soeharto’s regime finally silenced the student’s movement through the policy of the Normalization of Campus Life or better known as NKK/BKK. In addition, NKK/BKK is a policy that, as the name implies, tries to depoliticize student’s movement by repressing them within their own campuses. After the government enacted NKK/BKK, student’s political space were becoming “more tightly monitored as a part of the depoliticization effort by the government along with all the rules that come with it, such as the filling of rectorate posts with military man, night curfew, and even hair standardization – which especially forbid male student to have long hair.” Bayu told me. Despite all that effort by the regime, they are instead radicalized students by forcing them to “jump over their campus’s fences and joined hand-in-hand with the broad mass in some local issues or sometimes with NGO.” He added.

NKK/BKK was so influential that the effect could still be felt later on; it shadows still looms over even today’s youth social movements. Apart from the increased involvement of youth in contemporary issues, conventional politics despite it is inevitably has a thorough impact - including social issues that loved youth - against everyday life, is still a taboo that should be avoided. The word politics is often associated with the words “dirty” or “nasty”. The very definition of it is also problematic. Most Indonesian still interpreted it in a rather narrow sense: legislative issues, activities of national figures, or in other words, they limit politics only to the extent that the state-centric politics. Putut noted that, “Young people today are indeed more sympathetic towards grass-root issues, maybe more than our counterparts from the past I dare say, in terms of the amount. And yet, they did not have formulated a clear solution to those problems, unlike the youth during New Order era who agreed on one solid strategy: the urgency to build a strong, grass-root oriented electoral party.”

It was easier to build an efficient political movement during the New Order era simply because there are fewer people who participate in politics. He said that if one wants to contribute in politics, then he or she has to “gamble their life, because one bad move and you are done. That is how bad it was at that time.” said Bayu. Thus, those who joined youth movement and the likes are, “very knowledgeable, because it is their life that they are risking.” He added.

Political literacy during the 90s was also not a problem, according to Zaki. He said that
it, “was easier back then to discuss hard issues with my friends.” He further explained, “So back then, those who joined the movements are obviously who are brave enough to risk their lives which mostly came from the upper-class – who also have access to various reading materials, or those who directly feel the sufferings – for example, those who live below the poverty line, and so on.”

Nowadays, literacy rate especially among them who actively engaged in the political participation process are not that high. It is in correlation with the low rate in a broader sense of today’s youth generation. There are two major debates on the use of social media in political participation. First, it might help disseminating ideas or discourses, but it may also lessen the reader’s understanding towards the issue. Books can be rather lengthy, but it is precisely their length that makes them more in-depth. Second, social media to facilitate those who cannot physically join the struggle to keep supporting a social movement. Although at the same time such thing can also reduce the meaning of participation, limiting it to an online petition signatures or worse, some people even think that knowing is a form of participation. When asked about his position on those two arguments, Putut said that he is, “leaning more towards the second one. That is, I am sceptical to social media. From my recent experiences, our online campaign for the Rembang issue were very, very successful – a lot of people actively creates their own posts using our image and template, and yet when it comes to real action, only few people showed up.”

Despite the low interest in reading, youngsters nowadays are much more politically active. Bayu noted that today’s movement are, “more diverse, varied, which is good. It is an evidence that New Order’s paradigm are slowly fading.” “But it should maybe because of their low literacy, I have not seen yet any youth political groups which is really blend in with the broad masses while also has clear vision as a movement.” He added. Similar to that, Putut hoped that his generation will take full advantages of today’s advanced technology to develop a good reading habit and thus, broaden their knowledge. “Hopefully my staff will use all those shiny new apps for curated readings, or something like that, to further their understanding on today’s issues.” He said.

Pull quotes:

“Back then those who joined political movements are brave enough to gamble their life, because one bad move and you are done. That is how bad it was at that time (New Order era).”

“Youth movement of this decade are more diverse, varied, which is good. It is an evidence that New Order’s paradigm are slowly fading.”