YOGYAKARTA – The democratic party will soon be held in Indonesia. Gen Z aka young voters are predicted to dominate the election. Rooted in the tendency of students who are not wise in using their voting rights, the Communication Science Student Association (Himakom) of UPN “Veteran” Yogyakarta initiated an Open Discussion (Skuter) with the topic “Golput Emergency Students, What Can Bawaslu Do?” on Monday (06/11) at the Public Relations Laboratory of UPN “Veteran” Yogyakarta.
In this activity, Himakom invited speakers, namely Muhammad Najib as Chairman of Bawaslu Yogyakarta Special Region and Susilastuti as a lecturer in Communication Science UPN “Veteran” Yogyakarta.
The discussion opened with the reality of abstention among students, especially in Yogyakarta, because the Special Location TPS could not accommodate all student votes from outside Yogyakarta. Muhammad Najib explained that the level of voter participation in Yogyakarta in all circles is still high. “Abstention often occurs in the scope of students because the number of those who move their voting rights exceeds the availability of ballots, especially in Sleman Regency,” said Muhammad Najib.
Communication Science lecturer, Susilastuti also gave her views on abstention among students. According to her, abstention is a fact that occurs in a democratic country like Indonesia. She explained that students lack technical understanding of elections and other understandings about elections. “Many students think that elections are just a struggle for power. This sometimes makes students apathetic and leads to abstention,” said Susilastuti.
Andin, as the chief executive of the Scooter event, said that the reason for organising this discussion activity came from students’ unrest towards the government, which triggered a lack of trust. She also believes that this forum is used so that students can directly exchange ideas with people who are experts in their fields.
From this, the person in charge made the purpose of this activity to increase students’ understanding and make them more aware of Indonesian politics. “Maybe this discussion can provide education to students to be more literate in the world of politics,” explained Andin. The hope is that this open discussion will not only be held once, but in the future it is hoped that there will be other discussions as a forum for student learning that raises issues that are being discussed.
Although this activity was the first to be carried out, the enthusiasm of the participants was quite good. Olgan, a student majoring in Communication Science 2023, gave his impression of the event. “The event is good and well-structured, but hopefully in the next discussion we can explore the topics raised in more depth so that the intent and message are more easily conveyed,” said Olgan.
The end of the activity was closed with a closing statement from the speakers, in which both speakers agreed that all students should not be passive. “Students should be able to put themselves as examples in society,” the speakers concluded.
Sumber: suarasikap.com