It is a crime to prevent the people from getting the best candidate for national leadership.
IT is undeniable that the figure who will dominate the conversation in the public sphere throughout 2021, is Anies. It’s like, there’s not a day without a post about it. It’s so crowded, that the only thing that can balance it is the issue of the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, speaking of covid, in the end it also turned to Anies, thanks to his success in controlling the pandemic in Jakarta. WHO names him as one of the most successful and best leaders to tackle the pandemic.
The conversation about Anies becomes even more boisterous, when a group of people from “ANIES” suddenly “came out” to declare Anies for the 2024 presidential candidate in October 2021. Suddenly, Indonesia was shocked by the actions of the Prosperous Indonesian National Alliance (shortened in Bahasa as ‘ANIES’).
As a result, Anies’s euphoria appears omnipresent, like a raging wave. The euphoria, among other things, has been marked by the emergence of various volunteer groups in various regions.
But actually, long before ANIES appeared, there had been several Anies volunteer networks, such as Milleanis, which later developed into the National Mileanis Network (Jarnas Mileanis) 24.
However, after the declaration of ANIES, Jarnas Mileanis 24 has continued to develop networks in various provinces, regencies, cities, and at district levels, to declares their groups and commnunities.
In the virtual world, what else, like reluctant to miss. Netizens are competing to form the Anies for president volunteer groups. Then, Anies volunteer WhatsApp groups appeared, both nationally consisting of netizens from Sabang to Merauke, as well as at the local level.
Does the euphoric wave phenomenon affect Anies’ electability as a presidential candidate? The Coffee Shop Survey conducted in November 2021, provided significant data. In the regional head cluster, Anies scored 37.4%, ahead of both Ganjar Pranowo and Ridwan Kamil.
Not only that, at the end of 2021, Indonesia Indicator has even named Anies Baswedan, the Governor of DKI Jakarta, as the most popular and most influential governor throughout 2021.
Again, ahead of Ganjar Pranowo and Ridwan Kamil, who are said to be Anies’ closest competitors.
What are the indicators?
Indonesia Indicator (I2) is a media analysis company. By using intelligence media analytics tools, I2 conducted research related to governors who were the most referred to by the media throughout 2021.
In its research, I2 collected nearly 29 million news sources from more than 6 thousand Indonesian online media.
The result? Anies was quoted by the media 127,677 times. Meanwhile, Ganjar Pranowo and Ridwan Kamil only received 85,158 and 73,567 times, respectively.
Imagine, put the quote from Anies’ statement, read by an average of only ten people, then, Anies’ name is spoken by more than 12 million people. So the survey that mentions Anies Baswedan’s popularity, far surpassing his two competitors, is a survey that deserves to be trusted.
The latest survey that downplays Anies’ name after the ‘KedaiKopi’ survey is not worth mentioning because the results of its works are not reliable. The public suspect that the release of such a survey has a tendency to restrain Anies. What’s more, the survey results tend to contradict the atmosphere in the public sphere.
The atmosphere in the public space today is the reality of already inclination in the split of two opposing sentiments. One part is with Anies while the other half is Anies haters.
But what’s interesting here, is not about the split, but rather the persistence of Anies haters who keep trying to look down on Anies. This could suggest that Anies’ electability has been already far above of his competitors.
So far, the efforts of Anies haters to continue to downgrade Anies, which have proven to be unsuccessful, and it seems to be the cause that makes them run amok.
So they will do anything that could harm Anies, exploited it to the fullest. It doesn’t matter if in the end it backfires and then produces silliness that invites public laughter.
Remember the case of a car that fell into an vertical drainage wells? Bet that it really was an “accident” with no prior scenarios. But the public became suspicious when the owner of the car came to the scene to take pictures and then to make it viral.
So, what did people at the coffee shop say? “You know you’ve just got out from work, but what is your driver doing there?!”
As the author recalls, the story about the vertical drainage wells has been produced for three episodes. The first episode is titled “leak wells as a stupid project”. The second is entitled “vertical drainage wells to disturb road users”. The last is entitled “the car fell into a vertical drainage wells”.
Unfortunately, the continuation story project failed, because Jakarta was not flooding or in inundation state either.
The continuous story of the vertical drainage wells, which are made up to three episodes, is only a small example of how massive and systematic their efforts to harm the good name and reputation of Anies as well as his chances in the 2024 presidential election.
But make no mistake. The Anies haters who appear on the surface, according to people at the coffee shop, are just tools. They are used to prevent this nation from having an ideal of reliable leader.
“Clowns, as they call to those illogical haters.
(Yarifai Mappeaty, a freelancer writer and columnist)
