时间:2019-02-18 作者:英语课 分类:2019年VOA慢速英语(二)月


英语课

For Many Young Indonesians, Not Voting Looks Appealing


Indonesia is preparing for presidential elections. The voting will take place in two months.


Younger Indonesians are showing signs of dissatisfaction with the country’s political establishment. Many observers are worried that young people may choose not to vote in the April 17 elections.


Former Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, widely known as Ahok, has urged his supporters to vote. His appeal appeared in a letter that was made public shortly after his release from jail. The former governor served an almost two-year prison sentence for violating the country’s blasphemy 1 law.


Some of his supporters are dissatisfied with Indonesian President Joko Widodo, widely known as Jokowi. In his letter, Ahok urged them against golput — short for golongan putih, the Indonesian term for non-voting.


Millennial 2 votes


It is widely believed that the word golput entered the Indonesian language in 1971, when activists 3 protested elections during the presidency 4 of Suharto. Voting at that time was hardly democratic. Suharto led the country from 1967 to 1998.


An estimated 58.9 million Indonesian voters did not take part in the 2014 elections. That compares with 48.3 million who did not vote in the 2009 elections. Those numbers come from The Partnership 5 for Governance Reform and Association for Elections and Democracy.


Young Indonesians have become an important voting bloc 6 in the 2019 elections. This can be seen in the rise of the Indonesian Solidarity 7 Party (PSI), whose campaign is designed to appeal to millennials, voters under the age of 40.


Observers believe that both the campaigns of Jokowi and his opponent, Prabowo Subianto, are attempting to target younger voters. Their campaigns repeat expressions from pop culture, such as when Jokowi used the term "Winter is coming" from the television show Game of Thrones. The two candidates have also promised to defend issues of importance to millennials, such as fighting high unemployment.


Dissatisfaction with candidates


Similar to Indonesian politics in the past, the talk about golput in 2019 has been linked to public dissatisfaction with the presidential candidates.


Rivanlee Anandar is a researcher at the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence. The 25-year-old told VOA that he plans to vote, but he will mark ballots 8 for both candidates. As a result, his vote will not count.


“Why both? You can interpret it however you want, either I trust in both candidates or distrust them completely. It’s more the second option, especially on human rights issues,” he said.


Nabila Ernada, age 22, expressed similar disappointment. Ernada told VOA that she plans to vote in April because it is her duty. But she added, “I don’t really believe that my vote is really making a difference towards the political scene in Indonesia.”


Similar to Ernada, Moudy Alfiana, 23, also plans on voting. “Many people believe that the candidates are the same, but if you look at their visions, there’s also differences,” Alfiana said. But she noted 9 that election campaign promises are no more than just that -- a promise.


Being surrounded by people who don’t plan to vote, I can understand where they are coming from, she added.


Many things make people choose not to vote, notes lawyer Alghiffari Aqsa, the former director at the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute. “They may feel as if the elections don’t impact their lives or they disagree with the current political system. They may dislike the candidates or distrust the representative democratic system,” he said.


Aqsa added that although people are more open to golput as an option this year, there is still a sense of dishonor surrounding it.


“If we look at social media, there’s a lot of names that people like to call those who abstain 10, from bad citizens, criminals…egoists to edgy,” he said.


I’m Kelly Jean Kelly.


And I'm George Grow.


Words in This Story


blasphemy – n. officially confirmed as real or true


disengage – v. to withdraw; to release or free from something


disenfranchise – v. to remove the legal right of something, such as the right to vote


interpret – v. to explain the meaning of something


vision – n. the power of seeing; something seen in a dream


egoist – n. a self-centered person



n.亵渎,渎神
  • His writings were branded as obscene and a blasphemy against God.他的著作被定为淫秽作品,是对上帝的亵渎。
  • You have just heard his blasphemy!你刚刚听到他那番亵渎上帝的话了!
一千年的,千福年的
  • Both Russia and America looked to the future to fulfill their millennial expectations. 俄国和美国都把实现他们黄金时代的希望寄托于未来。
  • The millennial generation is celebrating the global commons every day, apparently unmindful of Hardin's warning. 千禧一代显然对哈丁的警告不以为然,每天都在颂扬全球“公地”。
n.(政治活动的)积极分子,活动家( activist的名词复数 )
  • His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
  • Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》
n.总统(校长,总经理)的职位(任期)
  • Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
  • Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。
n.合作关系,伙伴关系
  • The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
  • Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。
n.集团;联盟
  • A solid bloc of union members support the decision.工会会员团结起来支持该决定。
  • There have been growing tensions within the trading bloc.贸易同盟国的关系越来越紧张。
n.团结;休戚相关
  • They must preserve their solidarity.他们必须维护他们的团结。
  • The solidarity among China's various nationalities is as firm as a rock.中国各族人民之间的团结坚如磐石。
n.投票表决( ballot的名词复数 );选举;选票;投票总数v.(使)投票表决( ballot的第三人称单数 )
  • They're counting the ballots. 他们正在计算选票。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The news of rigged ballots has rubbed off much of the shine of their election victory. 他们操纵选票的消息使他们在选举中获得的胜利大为减色。 来自《简明英汉词典》
adj.著名的,知名的
  • The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
  • Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。
v.自制,戒绝,弃权,避免
  • His doctor ordered him to abstain from beer and wine.他的医生嘱咐他戒酒。
  • Three Conservative MPs abstained in the vote.三位保守党下院议员投了弃权票。
学英语单词
a. perinealis
accrued charge
acoustic magnetic mine
adlecting
administration of internal affairs
Aflogualnum
ai chi
alternative procedure
ampholite
art and part
artificial caving
assidue
base of petroleum
black cottonwood
blue-green bacterium
bursting speed
cascading down
centricdiatom
cloud-bases
complementary scale
consistorial
conventional-arms
counter-cast
Crista sacralis intermedia
Cynwyl Elfed
Daphne holosericea
departmental arrangement and distribution in commodity stock
Direct Copper Blue 2R
disinflations
drip channel
event oriented simulation
eye-serve
factorization method
facular
Fentathienil
flower
geomagnetic periodic variation
go yachting.
group demodulator filter
harpending
hepatitis sequestrans
information management program
initial overburden pressure
insulation varnish
intrapore
inverse beta process
journal box lid hinge
lanatest
light pressure separator
Lothair
megalodiscs
merry-go-round
monoethanolamine(surfactant)
moving current-weighted Passche indexes
neutralizing water tank
new staff
Nihon-maru
non-specified-time relay
nuclear quadrupole spectrum
oil pressure switch
one-cancels-the-other order
orbit maneuver engine
output transfer function
Pare's suture
plain shank
plant hole
poikilosmotic character
preregeneration
progressive wave
pushback
put somebody up to
RCITR
reducing capacity
reductive alkylation
regional index call warrant
RFRNA
Rhodiola wallichiana
Richardson's ground squirrel
rosette phyllotaxy
semi-tractor
sexlessnesses
sgd.
shell tuck
sickling diathesis
simple deterministic language
spaces out
spantik
spread back
sugarcane top
system of gravitational unit
tea-tree
telephone bills
tiled mode
use test
vendibler
vertical decomposition
voltage and frequency response
wear plate
Y ligament
Yang Shiying
zori