Future of Democracy: The Role of Indonesian Youth

Have you ever imagined what the government will look like at 10 until 20 years ahead? Obviously, there is no thing such as an immortal human being. There will be a time when the people who now rule our country become old, their thinking skills become numb, and finally incapable to take care of our beloved country, at the end. 

In Indonesia, it is not possible for someone to officiate the exact same position for more than 10 years in the governmental system. After all, political issues will not be solved if the exact same person is handling it. There will be no new ideas invented to solve the problems.  

What is politics anyway? Based on The Oxford Dictionary, politics are the activities associated with the governance of a country or other area, especially the debate or conflict among individuals or parties having or hoping to achieve power. So, politics issue is problems that happen in the activities associated with governance.

A country will not be spared from political issues. Every country has its own problems. For this reason, politicians are here to solve these problems, in addition to serving in the seat of government. Who are these politicians? According to Abraham Utama for BBC Indonesia, the average age of Joko Widodo’s cabinet of minister, the current president of Indonesia, is 54 years old. This means that politicians nowadays are people with the age around 54. 

This is not comparable with the number of young people in Indonesia. It was recorded that in 2019, millennials almost numbered 100 million people. This number is very disproportionate to their role in government. 

The question is: Should young people like high schoolers get involved in Indonesian politics issue? My answer is: Yes, they should. I am one of the high schoolers too, in fact. But what I mean about getting involved is not directly. High schoolers still need so much to learn and experience, but that does not hold us from getting involved in politics issues. 

In a couple of years, we are the one who will run the government. I think we have to prepare young people to occupy seats of government in the future. After all, we young people are the future of Indonesia, as well as the future of the world. This particular preparation can be started from high school grades, or even from junior high school.  

The bigger problem we are facing now is the lack of interest in young people towards politics issues. We often get young people nowadays mostly indifferent about politics. I often see my friends on social media, which of course my friends on social media are almost all the people I know from school, raise their voice about politics issues only because it went viral and everybody is talking about it. They talk about that recent controversial political issue without reading valid information first, just because they want to look up to date, smart, and cool. 

Raising your voice about political issues without understanding base theories of what you are talking about, is very dangerous because you can get someone misinformation. Other than that controversial issue everybody is talking about, many young people admit they are not interested in politics simply because it is too complicated to think about. 

This is the reason why we have to emphasize civic education in schools. This lesson is fundamental to understanding politics and what is happening with our country. I still often meet friends who don't care about this lesson because it seems boring, even though in fact it is very important to understand, even by young people. 

I suggest schools to embrace their students towards politics issues by conducting seminars that discuss politics with a youth approach to make it easier to understand. The main goal is not to produce new politicians in the future, but simply to build awareness and concern for the country's political conditions so that young people would like to think about the progress of the nation, not just complaining about bad governance. 

Dear youth fellow, instead of regretting why you were born and raised in Indonesia, isn't it better to think about how to make this country even better? Indonesia was born and independent thanks to the struggles of the young people in the past, their extraordinary enthusiasm brought this country to its freedom from colonialism. I myself will not let their efforts go to waste. 

Indonesia is your identity. Don't you feel bad if a friend leaves you because you are at a low point in your life? That is what our homeland might feel, if it could feel. We have lots of ideas, right? Why not make this country better with your participation in everyday behavior? I think it would be better to do so.