Challenging Hegemony: Nurhadi-Aldo and the 2019 Election in Indonesia

ABSTRACT

During the highly polarised 2019 presidential election campaign in Indonesia, calls for not voting for either of the two candidates (golput) were stronger than in previous elections. This article analyses the social media phenomenon of Nurhadi-Aldo, a fictional presidential and vice presidential candidate duo, as a campaign for golput, reaching hundreds of thousands of Indonesians on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Drawing on Gramsci’s concept of “common sense,” this article suggests understanding the fictional Nurhadi-Aldo election campaign within the context of a hegemonic social bloc which relies on a political language through which marginalised groups cannot express their aspirations in terms of their economic identity. Rather, the language of religious morals and reactionary nationalism is the default stance. An analysis of the issues, arguments, symbolism, and language used in Nurhadi-Aldo memes suggests that the campaign offered a new style of golput campaign since it used language and political symbolism that ran counter to the political language of the ruling social bloc.

KEY WORDS:

• Indonesian elections
• political protest
• online activism
• Gramsci
• internet memes

Acknowledgments

The author is grateful to all the students in Indonesia for spending so much of their time with me discussing Indonesian politics in general and Nurhadi-Aldo specifically. Especially, I want to thank Ruri (Makassar), Nadya Karima Melati and Andi Achdian (Jakarta) for their helpful remarks. Also, the comments of the anonymous reviewers helped to improve this article.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Dwifungsi was a New Order doctrine assigning the military roles in both military and civilian affairs. Hence many military personnel occupied positions in the government and the civilian bureaucracy.

2. This term denotes identities that are, as signifiers within hegemonic discourses, necessary outside of society but serve, at the same time, as an inevitable condition for the very identity and cohesion of a specific society (see Roskamm 2015).

3. In a personal conversation with the author, Suseno said he regretted these derogatory terms but continued to stress the importance of voting.

4. The two interviews can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd-onAGoAxg (accessed February 8, 2019) and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuJYGJlKzPk (accessed February 8, 2019).