“Don’t let others decide your fate without you being involved.” This call from Mgr. Soegijapranata, one of Indonesia's heroes and Indonesia's first indigenous bishop, inspired the Youth Commission of the Indonesian Bishops' Conference (KWI) to encourage Indonesia's Catholic youth to do their part by voting in the general elections for president, vice president, and parliament members on February 14, 2024.
“On this Day of Valentine, I encourage Catholic youth to vote for Indonesian democracy and diversity,” said Bishop Pius Riana Prapdi, Chairman of the Youth Commission of KWI, in a short video posted on the institution's official Instagram account, @omknet.
Bishop Prapdi further said that Indonesian Catholic youth should be a resilient electorate that resists the temptation to use money to influence the election, actively seeks politicians' track records, and also actively invites friends and relatives to vote so that they can eventually participate seriously in maintaining a democratic Indonesia.
In addition, he invited the Catholic youth to look for leaders who care about diversity and environmental issues. Because when they take care of the earth, they also take care of life.
Various diocesan youth commissions also organize different activities at the diocesan level to provide Catholic youth with a national perspective. For example, the youth commission in the diocese of Ketapang, Borneo, organized a sharing for Catholic youth committees on the knowledge they need before voting.
“I look for election news on social media, and there is a lot of information that makes us be critical and check the truthfulness,” said Excelsis Deo, one of the Catholic youths from Ketapang Diocese who participated in the discussion.
The youth commission of Medan Archdiocese, North Sumatera, also conducted a Christian leadership training program for Catholic youth that focused on the election. As part of their field exposure, the participants interviewed society in Medan to gather their opinions in the run-up to the election.
“The people we have spoken to have shown that they will vote for politicians who can change economic conditions. If no one has an economic impact, they tend not to vote,” explained one of the participant members.
The participants then processed the interview results by reflecting on them both individually and in groups. The speakers provided them with a variety of information, including the Indonesian media framing that informed them about the elections. Following that, the trainers asked the participants to identify the right candidate and then apply the knowledge they gained during the training in their own environments.
These efforts by the Youth Commission, both at the national and diocesan levels, are a manifestation of the Church's concern for a better future for the Indonesian people.
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