Center for Communication, Media, and Culture Studies Fikom Unpad held a Public Discussion “Inviting Citizens to Cawe-Cawe Public Issues Towards 2024”
Fikom Unpad’s Center for Communication, Media and Culture Studies held a public discussion “Inviting Citizens to Cawe-Cawe Public Issues Towards 2024” through the Zoom webinar and live on Fikom Unpad’s Lab TV YouTube channel on Tuesday, July 11, 2023. This discussion was moderated by one of the Communication Science study program lecturers, Preciosa Alnashava Janitra, M.I.Kom.
This discussion also presents expert speakers in their fields to explain issues that are widely discussed by the public. The event was opened with remarks by the Dean of Fikom Unpad, Dr. Dadang Rahmat Hidayat, S.Sos., S.H., M.Si. In his remarks, he said that with this discussion, it is hoped that the public will not only become spectators, but also be able to participate and convey their aspirations appropriately. Not only that, this discussion is also expected to reduce public misunderstanding of existing issues.
Detta Rahmawan, M.A., as a Researcher at the Center for Communication, Media, and Culture Studies at Fikom Unpad, presented his working paper on “Communicating Participation as a Public Issue.” When talking about communication and participation, it will always be related to democracy, civic space, policy, and public will. But in reality, the civic space for public participation in Indonesia has narrowed, characterized by the fear of physical and non-physical escalation against critical citizens, resulting in a chilling effect that discourages people from expressing their opinions. Currently, public participation is still administrative, virality-based, and the media is still Jakarta-centric. Therefore, in communicating participation, relevance, collaboration and technology are key to raising public issues.
Bivitri Susanti, who is a member of the Indonesian Center for Law and Policy Studies (PSHK), shares her views on public issues in politics. According to him, democracy is about people, not just institutions. “Seats”, which are supposed to be the epitome of representative democracy, are instead seen as power. Citizens are unable to participate in formal policy-making meetings, leaving only participation through demonstrations and discussions, which are often silenced. Currently, we are still focusing on representative democracy, even though many ideas have developed to bring democracy towards deliberative democracy that can provide space for citizens to participate directly in state administration. In reality, Indonesia still does not have enough political space to carry out this civic duty. Constitutional Court Decision Number 91 of 2020 concerning the Job Creation Law, that what is called meaningful participation is the right to be heard, the right to be considered, and the right to get answers to their considerations. However, this statement is not as rosy as the reality. The right is eventually reduced to a procedure, and tokenism and manipulation occur.
Kalis Mardiasih, a writer and young activist, also shared her experience of actively voicing her aspirations through media channels. In 2019, Kalis criticized the content on President Joko Widodo’s Twitter account, which at that time was actively uploading fun with his favorite grandchildren, even though the forest fires in Jambi became an important issue circulating in the community because it was recorded as the largest forest fire in Indonesia. Kalis did not expect that his criticism would become a weapon for himself, Kalis received surveillance from the authorities for his remarks, relating to the article on insulting the president. It’s possible that Kalis wouldn’t have been arrested on the spot, but when the government needed a distraction, it might have dropped the charges. Inevitably, Kalis received a chilling effect from the incident so that he slowly began to stop actively voicing his opinions on media channels. However, this has not stopped Kalis from being an activist, as she now focuses on sharing educational content and gender equality on her channel.
Nadia Hadad, Executive Director of the Madani Berkelanjutan Foundation, presented material on “The Urgency of Public Participation in Environmental Issues”. Right now, the earth is not doing well. There are already signs of a severe climate crisis, with temperatures rising dramatically, leading to heat waves, extreme weather and rising sea levels. The negative impacts of the climate crisis can be felt by all communities, whereas the right to a good and healthy environment should be a constitutionally guaranteed right. Public participation is needed to ensure the fulfillment of the right to a healthy and proper environment through expressing aspirations, participating in electing leaders, and taking part in legal procedures and participation in policy formulation. However, the current reality is quite the opposite. Therefore, information disclosure is a key requirement for the public to participate meaningfully. In closing, Nadia invited the public to jointly protect the environment and improve the public narrative regarding the importance of environmental protection.
This public discussion was closed with a question and answer session and a closing statement by the speakers that for a more advanced and developed civilization, hope for the future is needed through the opening of communication and participation spaces. Participatory processes of any kind and no matter how small can go a long way in the journey towards true democracy and more voices being heard. In this case, the state plays an important role in providing a safe space for citizens to participate and express themselves on public issues. (TDF)
