Semarang | In accordance with the Legislative Fair Of Unimus, Student Senate of Universitas Muhammadiyah Semarang held a National Seminar and Legislative Training, located in the Nursing Research Center building (9/05/2018). Themed “Youth’s Participation in Political Practice in the Millennial Era, the event was attended by hundreds of students from various programs, associations, and organizations. Luluk Nur Hamidah, M.Si, MPA, an expert staff in the Center of Constitutional Studies of People’s Consultative Assembly of the Republic of Indonesia, and Hernowo Budi Luhur, the Bureau Head of Cooperation of the City Government of Semarang became the speakers of the seminar. Attending also the seminar were Drs. Syamsudi Raharjo, MM., MT. (Vice Rector for Student Affairs) and Nuke Devi Indrawati, SE., S.SiT., M.Kes. (Adviser of Student Senate at Unimus).
Syamsudi in his welcome speech stated that the seminar and training were aimed at improving the knowledge of the students on state and constitution. “Activities of student organizations on higher education level is like a miniature of a state. For there are some political processes such as processes of law or regulation making, budget planning, from the smallest to the biggest ones, which need to be highlighted,” he explained.
Luluk Nur Hamidah, M.Si, MPA presented a material related to the theme, about the fact that in this digital era, millennial generations have become the main actors in any sector, especially in politics. “Millennial generation is the majority of the population. More than 34% out of the total population of Indonesia or around 83 million people, are dominated by 17-40 year-old people. Thus, in either Governor or Presidential Election in 2019, the majority of the voters will be possibly the millennial generation,” she added. Luluk stated that, “…as a part of the millennial generation, we have to consider democratic processes (such as Governor and Presidential Elections) as something fun.
It means that young generations should become the motors of democracy. For instance, in Hongkong, there is a 17 year-old boy named Joshua Wong along with his 300 peers, including college and high school students, who has generated the politics in Hongkong, demanding the Government of the People’s Republic of China to activate democracy in Hongkong. One of the ways is by giving rights to vote and to be voted. Right to Dissent in the Governor Election of Hongkong, directly and not decided by the Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party. A 17 year-old boy is struggling for the change of Hongkong’s politics,” she said.
Meanwhile, Hernowo Budi Luhur, the following speaker, explained that millennial generation in the modern era had to have filter of information. “Various kinds of news and information had been spread through social media, neglecting the accuracies of the contents. On the other side, social media in this modern has not only become an additional need but already changed its function to become a primary need, which seems difficult to leave behind. Nowadays, the spread of hoaxes can be accepted easily by Indonesian people. It can later directly influence mindsets, mental states, emotions and even disturb our unity in diversity, by scorning each other and misunderstandings in th cyber world,” Hernowo explained.
He added that “Moreover, the main targets of the hoaxes are young generations who can easily accept the news and information without filtering in the first place. For young or millennial generations today are the majority of social media users. Whereas, as we all know, young generations will be the successors of the nation in the future, who will decide to which direction that the nation will leads. They will also have an important role in maintaining the Unity in Diversity. Hence, whatever happens, never lose your idealism,” he asserted.
By attending the national seminar and legislative training, the students of Universitas Muhammadiyah Semarang are expected to have smart political knowledge and perspectives. Young generations are expected to play a role in politics because their political position and impact will be very extensive, exploiting the entire strategic needs of the society, from political to security needs. All government’s policies cannot separated from political domain. This is what makes youth, as the middle class, is required to take a balanced position, so that the tendency of the government to neglect the public’s interest can be monitored by the youth. Due to the challenging recent situation in the political practice in Indonesia, which seems becoming the status quo, which is anti-establishment and firmly refuses rejuvenation. It needs some serious touches. Here the presence of the youth, known for their transformative spirits, is needed to reduce the old power with oligarchic, authoritarian, and ne-direction political style. All these things can be broken down by the idealistic and broad-minded (holistic) young generations.
