Group 1 :

1. Adie W.K. (1802890)

2. Desi Sri Ayu Hutabarat (1802583)
3. Faris (1804217)
4. Novi ()
5. Nur padhilah (1802535)

The Involvement of Artists in Politics

Since the reformation era at the 20s, there have been some public figures entering the
political career in Indonesia, and not few of them occupied high positions in well-known parties.
For instance, Sigit Purnomo Syamsuddin, one of the members of National Mandate Party (PAN)
who used to be the lead vocalist of Ungu band, recently serves as the vice mayor of Palu, South
Sulawesi. Looking at such example, the phenomenon of entertainers joining politics tends to
increase remarkably in the last five years. Thus, it results that artists who don’t possess political
background are doubtful to become a politician among the society.

Artists are thought to be the party delegates due to their popularity as public figures and
needed to promote the parties vote. Liputan6.com published an article which stated that there are
fifty four artists who have been rumored to be delegated by various parties to enroll for
upcoming election. From Liputan6.com, those fifty four artists are mostly newcomers who will
participate in 2019 election. Although they have not been involved in any political activities
before, the party seems to have believed that their present could sky-rocket its electability in an
election. Instead of progressing towards better future on democracy substance, such tendentious
intention towards the artists would only provide this country with democracy substance
decadence.

Following that, a lot of artists whose names were rumored to be the next members of
legislative have backgrounds that are not suitable to be politicians. Perhaps they are good at
citizens’ current affairs and demands, but they may not be familiar with the law that relates to the
problem. However, Kurniawan in Liputan6.com stated that artists who will participate in
upcoming election should be equipped with certain political skills and possess clear vision and
mission towards their program. He also added that such duty will likely improve our democracy
substance or the other way around. It can be seen that the work of parties are not that simple,
since they need to educate the artists to be ready in political stage. One does not simply, the artist
are required to study politics before the election with only short time of politic courses. Since
they don’t have political background, the lack of time spent in educating them will severely cost
to their quality as a politician.

From the reasons above, both artists who newly become a politician and don’t possess
political background will be a burden for political and democratic life in this country. Since, our
political and democratic life is growing through major and minor problems. Therefore, we
shouldn’t add bad apples against delicious broth we have been making this whole time.