Jakarta’s governor election faced a major test for the harmony of democracy after a long campaign ran by the candidates. During the election fever, we can see the rally was happening against the candidate – Ahok because Islamic groups’ anger toward Ahok stems from comments he made last autumn, where he strongly critiqued the way conservative hard-line Muslim leaders interpreted the Quran. Ahok was hoping to win a mandate in his own right.
However, the FPI insists that no Christian especially a Chinese one should lead the capital of the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation. The FPI’s campaign threatens to drive a wedge between Indonesia’s Muslim majority and its 3 million ethnic Chinese citizens.
The famously blunt-speaking Ahok did not help the situation when he told a crowd on Sept. 27: “Ladies and gentlemen, you don’t have to vote for me — because you’ve been lied to by those using [the Quran’s] Surah al-Maidah verse 51. That’s your right.” The Ahok issue has been a rallying point that has brought many different strands [of radical Islam] together so that is why the demonstrations have been so big and some Islamic organization was supporting each other to against Ahok and demanding him to go to the jail.
It seemed like during the election process Jakarta’s citizen was proofing their critical thinking in determining which one deserved to be elected as a Jakarta’s governor since they believed that as a public figure, the suitable candidate will show the value of real leader in demonstrating good vibe and positive energy to the society.
The leadership point that we need to concern related to Jakarta’s election is on how we preserve the leadership value on harmony of democracy which will bring peace among candidates and citizens as well. Since leadership plays a vital role in democratic movements, understanding the nature of democratic leadership is essential. However, the definition of democratic leadership is unclear (Gastil, 1994). Also, little research has defined democratic leadership in the context of democratic movements.
Even though the leadership literature has paid no attention to democratic leadership in such movements, focusing on democratic leadership within small groups and organizations which offering lessons for democratic governance, but I believe we can examine the leadership value during Jakarta’s governor election lately.
In my opinion, during the process of election in both candidates and supporters or even citizens have shown an unfriendly situation in dealing with the election process. Some provocative issues appeared during the campaign which led into hatred and discrimination in some ways. As a democratic country, it should not have happened to us since we always uphold the value of respecting diversity and harmonization. We should have promoted a peace situation and a friendly environment for the betterment of Jakarta by starting it from the campaign until the election process. Even though we have different choices of candidates but we need to respect other’s choice.
I believe, If there is no leader the nation will be down since a leader is really important to guide a nation’s journey. But in Indonesia, we are facing the lacking of leadership. Leadership is not only about the figure but it is about the way to lead. Most people believe that leadership is a mandate from God that needs to be maintained. That is why as a leader we need to be a good example for a citizen by showing how big the responsibility can be implemented for the betterment of a nation.
The leadership is not just a theory and preserving power but more than that, leadership needs to show moral and spiritual energy in order to support integrity. In Indonesia, we can see many leaders use their power for their own interest that is why corruption exists. We need a leader with real moral to fight that challenge by standing on the right track. So for the better of Indonesia, choosing a leader is not about the capacity, capability or even just about intelligence. We really have to consider the value of morality and spiritual in order to guide that particular leader in doing its job as a real leader who received a mandate from God.
