Digital Democracy in Indonesia’s 2019 Election: Between Citizen Participation and Political Polarization

Abstract

In April 2019 Indonesia conducted its fourth direct election since the 1998 democratic reformation. This election is frequently described as one of the most complicated elections in the world, given a large number of voter and simultaneous process with the legislative election. The eminent feature of the current elections in Indonesia is the increasing use of the internet for the various forms of electoral politics. The internet has been widely used in the election campaign, voter education as well as disseminating information on electoral rules and election result. It leads to the question about the influence of the online platform to electoral political participation in Indonesia. This paper attempts to investigate the nexus between digital democracy through an online platform and political participation by analysing the role of Kawal Pemilu and AyoJagaTPS, the crowdsourcing projects run by civil society. This platform is an essential effort to prevent electoral irregularities that could undermine the legitimacy of the election. Taking the classical literature on political participation that classified political participation into four dimensions: voting, campaign activity, contacting official and collective activities, this paper argues that online political participation through digital democracy offers a new dimension of participation by accentuating voluntarily action from the public. However, it also creates competition and distrust around the subject of digital data resulted from deepening polarization in Indonesia's politics. This paper employs qualitative methods to analyse a case study of Kawal Pemilu and AyoJagaTPS, the citizen digital platforms as one of the forms of political participation during Indonesia 2019 election.

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“…The most critical issue in managing SITUNG's data was the entry of incorrect data. Errors in data entry were identified by the Election Commissions through direct monitoring and reports from the public (Sustikarini, 2020). In an effort to effectively manage SITUNG, the election commissions regularly addressed and corrected instances of incorrect data entry.…”

Kampung Pengawasan Partisipatif dan Road Map Indeks Kerawanan Pemilu di Kabupaten Indramayu

“…Partisipasi dan keterlibatan masyarakat sipil sangat penting dalam sistem demokrasi elektoral saat ini, tentunya dalam meningkatkan partisipasi dibutuhkan proses pendidikan politik yang berkelanjutan untuk membangun kesadaran politik masyarakat dalam mengawal proses demokrasi (Nur Wardhani, 2018;Yustiningrum, Emilia, Ichwanuddin, & Wawan, 2015). Partisipasi politik tidak hanya dimaknai dalam memberikan suara dalam proses pemilihan akan tetapi juga dapat mendorong keterlibatan masyarakat sipil dalam proses pengawasan Pemilu (Sustikarini, 2020). Selama ini Bawaslu sudah mendesain keterlibatan masyarakat sipil dalam program pengawasan partisipatif, dalam term ini Bawaslu menggandeng kelompok masyarakat, organisasi masyarakat sipil, pemuda dan kelompok lainnya untuk terlibat dalam pengawasan partisipatif dengan tujuan agar dapat menekan terjadinya pelanggaran pada saat pelaksanaan Pemilu, akan tetapi desain pengawasan partisipatif tersebut harus dikembangkan secara inklusif karena selama ini masih bersifat normatif (Saufi, Faiz, & Yanuar, 2020;Wibawa, 2019).…”