Mahfud MD: Election has Become a Hostility Event
Translator
Editor
19 February 2019 17:32 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Mahfud MD, the head of Gerakan Suluh Kebangsaan or a movement to promote nationality, said that the general election has now become an event of hostility, instead of a way to find a leader.
“So, we need a movement to alleviate the tense,” Mahfud MD said during Nationality Dialogue Series III event in Cirebon, Tuesday, February 19.
He also opined that the general election has led to primordial disunity and caused identity politics.
“Because this election seems to create hostile between supporters of A and B, this religion and that religion, ethnicity, and races. It has started to emerge, and this needs to be suppressed before it becomes a nation's disease,” Mahfud MD asserted.
With the current worrisome condition, according to Mahfud MD, a sense of nationality is required to be promoted. Such a nationality movement is significant to anticipate and reduce tenses among society.
Therefore, state-owned railway firm KAI in tandem with Gerakan Suluh Kebangsaan hold an event dubbed Jelajah Kebangsaan with a route from Merak to Banyuwangi. The event aims at encouraging every element of the society to build awareness of the nation and the country as to strengthen the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia.
ANTARA