A volunteer with the Mak Ganjar (Moms for Ganjar) support group hands out packages of staple goods and merchandise to the local women in Tapong village in Bone, South Sulawesi on July 8, 2022. - Jakarta Post/ANN
JAKARTA, July 12 (Jakarta Post/ANN): Thousands of housewives assembled last Tuesday in East Java to hold mass prayers in support of Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo’s bid in the upcoming 2024 presidential election, accompanied by ustazah (female Islamic scholars) who led religious chants.
Dressed uniformly in white, the group, which goes by the name Mak Ganjar (Moms for Ganjar), hailed from the capital Jakarta and its surrounding satellite cities.
Evy Nafisah, the coordinator for Greater Jakarta’s Mak Ganjar assembly, said the event was a “spiritual initiative” to help ensure success and favorable luck for Ganjar’s presidential endeavor.
Noting that the 53-year-old politician has always aced electability polls, Evy said that she perceived Ganjar as sensitive to domestic interests such as affordable and stable commodity prices.
“Ganjar’s victory in the presidential election will be a triumph for all housewives as well,” she said, as quoted by Tempo.
Before its most recent rally in Jakarta, members of the group from other cities had assembled in their hundreds and even in the thousands to declare their support in Central Java, East Java, South Sulawesi, Central Kalimantan, West Kalimantan and East Nusa Tenggara (NTT).
Apart from gathering for mass prayers, the ladies have also reportedly taken up other activities from organizing bazaars to aerobics sessions and beauty classes.
Evy explained that most of the Mak Ganjar groups across Indonesia were formed through social media, where housewives bonded over their support for Ganjar before deciding to meet in person.
She added that none of the Mak Ganjar members had been in contact or even met with the potential presidential candidate.
While a proportion of their members are not politically savvy, the group coordinator noted that most if not all of them were motivated by the media coverage of Ganjar, whose popularity has been on an upward trend over the past few years.
Experts have previously credited this recognition to effective public relations and social media legwork.
“The idea stemmed from looking at recent political updates. It is simple, really. We would look at the polling and figure out why the top contender is at the top. He is quite interesting, has experience in the House of Representatives and studied at Gadjah Mada University,” Evy told The Jakarta Post.
“We were nudged and inspired by the media. We cannot close our eyes to the sheer power of social media today. The world is in our hands.”
Despite his remarkable electability, Ganjar has not declared his intent to run for president thus far.
While Evy testified to being motivated organically through personal conviction, Charta Politika executive director Yunarto Wijaya suggested that it was highly likely that there was an external variable that helped spark the movement, such as a political party, a candidate or local and international donors.
At the same time, there is an unmistakable element of sincerity among volunteers like Evy as well.
“A candidate’s electability and the vigor of their volunteer movements are directly proportional,” Yunarto told the Post.
“If a politician with low electability tries to launch a movement, it will most likely lose momentum and dissipate. Though these organizations are not 100 percent organic, a candidate with high electability can get a movement going with limited resources and watch it amplify independently [without further prompting].”
Speaking of volunteer movements, Yunarto explained that the voice of housewives plays an intriguing role in Indonesian politics. In the past decade, some politicians have been seen making notable efforts to appeal to this demographic.
In 2019, for example, Gerindra Party chairman Prabowo Subianto and his running mate Sandiaga Uno at the time pledged to “fight for the emak-emak [housewives] party”.
This supporter group, which became one of the pair’s most important voter bases, had strong conviction that the duo would represent their interests in government, with some going as far as creating a subgroup named Emak-emak Militan (Militant Moms) who later claimed foul play following President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s reelection victory.
Three members of Emak-emak Militan were arrested in 2019 for scheming to sabotage Jokowi’s inauguration.
“When women like a product – in this context, a political candidate – they tend to have greater amplification power, and can at times, become fanatics. They take an emotional approach and will likely spread the message to their peers [unlike men]. This is why the support of housewives is fiercely contested,” said Yunarto.
Ella Prihatini, Binus University political scientist specializing in electoral studies, noted that the demographic also has weaknesses, such as an apparent tendency to fall into desirability politics and giving out favors to certain politicians that they find physically attractive – or at least those with effective image-building machinery, like Jokowi.
“Good looks are a selling point here. During [former president] Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s time, he was famous among women for being good-looking, which made him more appealing.
He then went on a talent show and became the first presidential candidate to do so. He appealed to them as an artistic type. It was very clever of him,” Ella told the Post on Thursday.
Ganjar is not an exception to the rule, she added.
The social media-popular governor was allegedly at the receiving end of House of Representatives Speaker Puan Maharani’s jab that the Indonesian public should refrain from “supporting someone simply because they are handsome”.
Puan is heir to the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) throne, while Ganjar is an ordinary party member.
That being said, Ella said it was paramount that housewives be perceived as an intersectional group of women. It would be false to perceive the group as a homogenous subset, she emphasized.
“We cannot claim that they are all of one identity. Education, background and residence all are important variables to consider. It is invalid to reduce them [to a stereotype] using a blanket statement,” she said.
Throughout history, housewives have played an indispensable role in Indonesian politics. During the 1998 Reform movement that toppled Soeharto’s authoritarian regime, women with children helped spark the initial wave of protests through demonstrations that criticized the rocketing price of baby formula.
“Back then, they would camouflage their rebellion through protests on commodity prices, which is a sensitive issue that is better accepted than, say, claiming that the government is corrupt. Then one thing led to another,” she said.
“Historically, housewives had a significant role in the regime. Whether that is acknowledged or not is a different story.” The fact that housewives are influential in grassroots movements and make for a large chunk of the electorate indicates a need for a more inclusive democracy, said Ella, who criticized the lack of women representation in politics.
Evy, the Mak Ganjar coordinator, told the Post that women are often overlooked by politicians assuming that domestic interests are exclusive to women and not to society at large.
This neglect is also a big motivating factor for the women of Mak Ganjar.
“These male leaders were born from, raised and fed by women, were they not? Our demands are simple and nothing out of the ordinary. We want more affordable staple foods so that our children are nourished and may become productive members of society. The children we raise may become leaders too one day,” she said.
“This is a non-gendered issue. This is a strategy for collective welfare.”
To ensure that their fight will not be in vain, Yunarto suggested that housewife groups could benefit from systematically organizing to demand accountability from their championed candidate, such as holding town hall meetings and drafting clear outlines of their periodical expectations.
Without these political contracts, these movements will not have any leverage to demand much once their favored politician finally wins power.
Ella added that it was essential that women not be intoxicated by promises and instead look into the candidates’ track record on female engagement.
“So, Ganjar, many of his supporters in Wadas are women. How did he treat these women when they protested against the environmental damage caused by the mining project? Promises may fool, but track records reveal,” she said.
“Hopefully these women are not simply used as political vehicles. And politicians ought to be responsible, too. You won because women expected you to solve things. But will you?” - The Jakarta Post/ANN
