"We need to prepare them (children) as first-time voters. It is necessary to build a sound level of political awareness among children because our future is in their hands," the ministry's Assistant Deputy for Civil Rights Fulfillment, Information, and Child Participation, Endah Sri Rejeki, confirmed in Jakarta on Wednesday.
Rejeki noted that the involvement of children in practical politics should be prevented, as such an act has proven to be risky and exploitative in nature.
"We have seen various forms of exploitative child involvement in practical politics, such as including children as political campaign masses, designing them as political campaigners, and manipulating their data to enable them to vote prematurely," she pointed out.
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Rejeki observed that child abuse in political activities has resulted in a negative political stigma that makes children consider politics as dirty, complicated, full of foul acts, and unfriendly.
"Such a stigma creates a gap between children and politics, making them reluctant to touch upon the matter. In fact, children do have political rights," she remarked.
She further pointed out that scores of children had yet to gain proper access to comprehensive information on politics and democracy, thereby leading them to harbor negative views on matters related to politics.
Hence, she emphasized the need to continue to disseminate accurate information to Indonesian children in the hopes of building a higher level of political literacy among them, so they will take interest in discussing politics.
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Translator: Anita P, Tegar Nurfitra
Editor: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga
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