REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The current millennial generation plays passive politics in an attempt to pressure political parties and presidential candidates to deliver substantial political education in the next general elections, Fadel Basrianto, the Indonesia Institute political researcher, stated. "The millennials appear to be playing passive politics," he remarked here, Monday.

Recently, a group of millennials threatened to become non-voters or abstainers, or locally called "golput" ("white party"), in the 2019 elections. By voicing such a threat, they indirectly pressured political parties and the presidential candidates to deliver better political education, he pointed out.

"This is a political tactic employed to not only decide who they will choose, but prior to that, they want to impose conditions on the presidential candidates and political parties participating in the 2019 Presidential Elections that they must deliver political education," he noted.

If such a stance is adopted by every millennial, it could contribute to a significant change, as the number of millennials in the illegible voter list of the 2019 elections reaches 40 percent, he stated. Political parties and candidates, who can gauge the millennials' orientation, will win their votes, he added.

Indonesia will organize simultaneous legislative and presidential elections on April 17, 2019, which is considered by many as a repeat of the bitter 2014 presidential race, wherein incumbent President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) and Prabowo Subianto are again set to go head-to-head.

Seeking a second term, Jokowi, a furniture businessman, has picked Ma'ruf Amin, chairman of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), as his partner, while retired general Subianto has chosen Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno, a young and successful entrepreneur and former deputy governor of Jakarta, as his running mate.

M. Jusuf Kalla, chairman of the Advisory Board of the Jokowi-Amin national campaign team (TKN), recently noted that based on a survey, several millennials have forecast a victory for Jokowi in the upcoming presidential elections.

"I briefly read (the result of the survey) that the millennial generation in the next elections will prefer to choose the number 1 (Jokowi-Amin). This is not a campaign but just the issued data," Kalla stated while addressing the Indonesian Millennial Summit 2019, here, on Saturday (January 19, 2019).

The millennials' preference for Jokowi was due to the leadership of Erick Thohir, who is chief of the Jokowi-Amin TKN, he stated.

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