building 32 supporting camp sites in 32 regional points in Jakarta. Through these first 32 camps, the struggle to collect the first 5,000 IDs began to feel.68
4.2. The Social-media Mobilization by Teman Ahok
The phenomenon of social-media mobilization, especially in Indonesia’s election, is an interesting study. In this section, the author would like to further elaborate on the social-media mobilization efforts made by Teman Ahok. The social-media mobilization driven by Teman Ahok includes the structure of 3 teams that have different functions. They are the field team69, the logistics team70, and the digital team71. Respondent M7 explained that the digital team was one of the most productive teams which the target are dominated by young people in Jakarta.72
Young people dominate Teman Ahok’s membership. We call it as ‘Millennials’.
Young people in Jakarta are also our main targets, that’s the reason why we need a digital team.
The term Millennials is usually considered to apply to individuals who reached adulthood around the turn of the 21st century, where they were literate in the digital world and the internet.73 Respondent M7 also added that the social-media mobilization efforts carried out by Teman Ahok could not see as forced or paid social-media
68 Paulus interview, online interview, June 19, 2019.
69 The field team focuses on the public support field.
70 The logistics team focuses on planning, implementing, and controlling the efficiency and effectiveness of storing and flowing goods, services and information to meet organizational needs, such as printing forms, banners, and brochures.
71 The digital team focuses on an organization’s digital brand by leading, building and managing their content creation in the digital world, such as through social media networking, online forum, blogging, and website.
72 Nurul interview, online interview, June 26, 2019.
73 Ruth N Bolton, A Parsu Parasuraman, Ankie Hoefnagels, Nanne Migchels, Sertan Kabadayi, Thorsten Gruber, Yuliya Komarova, and Solnet David, “Understanding Generation Y and Their Use of Social Media: A Review and Research Agenda,” Journal of Service Management 24 (Summer 2013), p. 245, DOI: 10.1108/09564231311326987, (accessed July 9, 2019).
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mobilization because supporters moved voluntarily either through offline or online movement.
There are many honest people, but only a few people dare to fight corruption, falsification, fraud, and lawbreaking. For us, only Ahok dares to fight those problems. While, those problems are difficult to overcome in Indonesia. So, it’s no wonder why Ahok is so controversial (Respondent P9). 74
Teman Ahok’s social-media mobilization received a positive response from many people, especially in Jakarta. Many people argue that they are apathetic towards politics and do not trust in political parties because they believe that politics are more concerned with groups than public interests. Therefore, Ahok more accepted because he did not have any involvement in political interests and could bring a better change to Jakarta.
Many people have little attention to political parties. Perhaps they no longer believe in candidates from political parties, who only focus on group interests.
However, after the appearance of Ahok who has no political interests, we hope Ahok will focus more on the public interest than individual or political interests.
(Respondent M5). 75
Teman Ahok also learned from the experience of Jokowi-Ahok volunteers during the election of the DKI Jakarta governor in 2012.76 Since then, the appearance of the phenomenon of volunteers involved in social-media mobilization has increased. In addition, in the 2014 presidential election, there was one of the presidential and presidential candidates, namely Jokowi-Kalla who appeared as a presidential and vice-presidential candidate made efforts to mobilize politics through the support from volunteers and supporters. The author also considers that Teman Ahok volunteers want
74 Swandani Kumarga interview, Jakarta, June 25, 2019.
75 Sukarno interview, online interview, June 27, 2019.
76 Singgih Widyastono interview, Jakarta, June 22, 2019.
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to build a movement that supports candidates who are honest, have a good character and have a good background in politics.
They also explained that they served on their will, awareness, and concern for the future of Jakarta without an order from any political parties or politicians.77 In fact, these volunteer groups could reach out empty spaces where political parties cannot reach. Empty spaces here refer to young people, political apathy groups and the older generation.
We can see the capabilities of our volunteers in social-media mobilization efforts without a formal structured system as we see in a political party.
Therefore, we can assume that this social-media mobilization is a new political form that should not underestimate. Additionally, there are still many issues that say we are political parties. We strongly deny that statement, and from the beginning we have mentioned that Teman Ahok made from spontaneous ideas and movement related to the future of Jakarta (Respondent M6).78
This social-media mobilization commitment began by studying the requirements of independent candidates from the electoral commission. They asked at least to get 7.5%
of the total population of DKI Jakarta or around 750,000 ID.79 This aims to facilitate independent candidates in their candidacy. Then, Teman Ahok chose 1 million ID as their social-media mobilization forms. Respondent F3 also added that the amount of 1 million they chose it because it was easier to socialize and exceed the minimum requirements of the election commission.80
77 Singgih Widyastono interview, Jakarta, June 22, 2019; Aditya Yogi Prabowo interview, Jakarta, June 23, 2019; Richard Handris Saerang interview, Jakarta June 24, 2019.
78 Doddy interview, online interview, June 29, 2019.
79 Sakinah Ummu Haniy, “Ingin maju sebagai calon independen? Ini syaratnya,” Rappler Indonesia, March 17, 2016, https://www.rappler.com/indonesia/126197-kontroversi-calon-independen-pilkada, (accessed July 2, 2019).
80 Richard Handris Saerang interview, Jakarta June 24, 2019.
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In Indonesia, things like this are new and rare. There are groups of volunteers who want to fight voluntarily without the help of political figures or political parties like us (Respondent F1).81
Although Teman Ahok is only limited to volunteers, they carry out political strategies such as building the image of Ahok and serving as a support team. Even though the development of political images and strategies should carry out by political parties or the media (press), not by volunteers.82