Hoax and Electoral Democracy

Categories Featured, Student Article

General election is a political contestation in order to elect people to occupy national leadership positions in the government. This is a national ritual carried out routinely for the sake of Indonesian sustainable democracy. It aims at achieving victory and power. For sure, there will be varying dynamics happen greatly. Sometimes, there is violence against political opponents both verbally and non-verbally, including the dissemination of negative issues and black campaign in order to bring down the opponents. One example of these kind of electoral violation is hoax, it is a phenomenon of dissemination of lies and non-existence issues. It has, and it will happen massively in the midst of a political frenzy ahead of the upcoming Presidential Election and Legislative Candidates in 2019. Public generally tend to be easily influenced by sensitive issues which are played by irresponsible people. Moreover, their mindsets are so vulnerable since they are lazy to cultivate reading habits. It certainly makes the hoax phenomenon spread even more without difficulty.

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The Politics of Comment, Like and Share

Categories Featured, Founder Column
Original Article: Politik Komen, Like Dan Share By: Zuhra Sofyan

If social media such as Facebook and Twitter were not as popular as it is now, would Trump or Jokowi win the election in their countries?

Of course whatever the answer to this question, whether yes or no, is debatable. However, it is hard to deny that social media has transformed the way we receive information and in a very special sphere, it can affect the political choices of its users.

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Welcome to the Era of Technology and Information!

Categories Featured, Founder Column
Original article: SELAMAT DATANG DI ABAD TEKNOLOGI INFORMASI! By: Zuhra Sofyan

I, you, and all of us are part of digital generations growing up in the virtual world that is rapidly evolving to the point where the need to connect to each other in virtual networks is normal and almost impossible to be denied from our daily live.

From all the sources of change of social values, creating the world which seems like there is no more cover, distance and space, or in Thomas L. Friedman’s term, “The flat world”, we can point out to a masterpiece of technology that has such a huge impact for the modern human race and the main cause of the term “The flat World” was born; Internet.

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‘Padi’ Literacy Movement

Categories Featured, Founder Column
Original Article: Gerakan Literasi Padi By: Saiful Akmal.

Many people believe that literacy is the key to the rebirth of a civilization. The command to be able to read and write is the earliest cycle of a culture. It is also an absolute prerequisite in education and the formation of personality. That’s why reading and writing are elementary components in the formation of progressive individuals. This group of literate personalities will eventually turn into a group of people who are capable to produce meaningful progress for their glory and existence in the world, wherever they might be. This generation then will bring enlightenment to their community. They will establish a more focused and useful activity, the culture will be one of the leading and primary references and their civilization will become a symbol of progress and excellence. They have to move forward to seek for spaces to express their feeling, like the water streaming to the lower place, they can keep sharing, until they end up stopping. Water that does not stream, does not flow, will only bring disease to the civilization.

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Where Were All the Design From?

Categories Featured, Founder Column
Original article: DIMANA DESAIN SEMUA INI? By: Muhammad Mirza Ardi

Every nation has its own story that cannot be imitated by other nations. Perhaps this is the reason why no nation has the same history. “Where else can French-style politics be found except in France?” Asked Clifford Geertz. Only in France can we find a story about the collapsed Bastille prison, the Voltaire’s satire, and the Guillotine knife that killed King Louis and the consort Marie Antoniette. Meanwhile, only in the American Revolution can we find a story about The Boston Tea Party, where the inhabitants of the colony disguising as Indian tribes threw a load of tea from the British ship to the seabed. It is only in America that the state ideas of James Madison, John Jay, or Alexander Hamilton can be found in The Federalist Paper. Neither in France nor in Indonesia. Similarly, only in Indonesia can we find the concept of Pancasila, no where else.

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Dear Sukarno-Hatta

Categories Featured, Founder Column
Original article: KEPADA SUKARNO-HATTA by: Alkaf Muchtar

Let us notice the last sentence in the Indonesian Proclamation of Independence:

“… On behalf of the Indonesian nation, Sukarno-Hatta.” It seems like there was no harmony lies in this sentence. But, really, that’s where the story about the ups and downs of Indonesia began.

Indonesian independence was organized and built through these two names. There was no harmony in both names, as it appeared in the text of the above proclamation, especially on ideas, yet from these two names comes up an amazing idea. There were many differences between them. But there are many similarities, too

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