Qualified Leaders Needed For National Resilience

JAKARTA, March 16 (Antara) - Indonesia is in need of cadres with high quality to become future leaders who are capable of strengthening national resilience. Therefore, the existing political parties must always be ready to prepare the qualified cadres, required by this nation and state as next leaders. However, National Resilience Institute (Lemhannas) Governor Lieutenant General (ret) Agus Widjojo remarked in Jakarta on Wednesday that most of the political parties have not yet been ready to produce ones. According to him, the political parties have not realized why they have lost in elections, and why they do not have new figures from among their cadres to be nominated as candidates in the elections. "Consequently, the candidates for the election are drawn from among new cadres from outside the parties, or those in the incumbent for the comfort zone," Widjojo asserted during a discussion of the Lemhannas Leadership Communication Forum with the chief editor of Mass Media on the "The Challenge of National Resilience Management in Facing the simultaneous regional heads elections (Pilkada) 2018" held at the Lemhannas Building. The Lemhanas governor noted that the political parties have failed to properly use the five-year time to consolidate their cadres. Such a condition has proven that so far there has been no change from the seriousness of the political parties to run one of their functions, namely to do political recruitment. Due to the lack of political recruitment efforts, it is not surprising that prospective leaders nominated for either the regional elections of general elections will the same persons all the time. Widjojo remarked that the lack of qualified cadres will also make Indonesia difficult to develop itself. "Political parties that fail to prepare their cadres will face difficulties as they approach the genera elections, because they are not yet conscious to introspect why they cannot prepare qualified cadres," the Lemhanas governor explained. He pointed out that in the 2014 general elections, all political parties participating in the elections had only two presidential and vice presidential candidates. And the same conditions are likely to occur in the 2019 presidential election. Widjojo reminded that the emergence of two candidates in the 2014 Presidential Election was enough to split the community and up to now raises fanatical groups in the community. Further, the Lemhanas governor added that the rise in hand-chatch operation conducted by law enforcement officers is also a real proof of the high cost of politics in Indonesia, that will result in Money politics. Scheduled to be held in June 2018, the simultaneous regional head elections are prone to politicization of religious issues, black campaigns, satire against other political opponents, and even money politics. Money politics in elections is nothing more than an attempt to degrade the dignity of the people. Hence, money politics must be abhorred, and that, the regional heads elections or the general elections must not create rifts between neighbors and villages, as otherwise, the country will have to bear high social, political, and economic costs. "Candidates of regional heads or certain parties who use money politics to determine who should be elected in the elections will inevitably degrade the dignity of the people," Home Affairs Minister Tjahjo Kumolo has stated. Nowadays there has been degradation of the spirit of nationalism. The rise of ethnic, racial and inter religious (SARA) issues, and the decline of solidarity and mutual cooperation reflect the behavior of life that has been away from the spirit of nationalism. Therefore, in the 2018-2019 political years when opposition parties and regional head candidates will likely indulge in acts to demean each other by engaging in name-calling, nonconstructive criticism, and money politics, Indonesians should maintain communal harmony. In the political years, the home affairs minister has invited all parties to move to voice peaceful elections, maintain unity, and not easily provoked by various SARA issues. The minister emphasized that the use of SARA issues in the regional and general elections could cause a lot of noise and divide the nation. Kumolo has urged all elements of the nation to promote peace and harmony, particularly during the 2018 simultaneous regional elections and the 2019 general elections. Hate speech and politicization of ethnic, religious, racial and inter religious issues should be anticipated and prevented from happening in the elections. People must stop using the issues of SARA in regional election campaign as they would strongly contribute to the disintegration of society in the long term. The 2018 simultaneous regional elections and the 2019 general elections should be supported by all stakeholders, the minister stated. The government has duties and tasks in supporting the implementation of regional and general elections, among others, providing population data, facilitating campaign activities, assisting the distribution, securing voting and providing legal protection. Chairperson of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) Megawati Soekarnoputri earlier stated that the simultaneous regional head elections in June 2018 should run in a civilized way without justifying any means. Power acquired through uncivilized ways by justifying any means will not last long, Megawati said, urging the candidates for regional heads and deputy regional heads of the PDIP to face the black campaign of opposing parties with a smile. The former president of Indonesia opined that the people had been wise enough to identify candidates for regional heads and deputy regional heads who will campaign to either divide or unite.