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Summary
As a country with a diversity of languages, religions, ethnicities and cultures, Indonesia is particularly vulnerable to the hostile play of identity politics. Lies produced during the Post-Truth period exploit many emotional sentiments and provoke interest groups to act based on primordial impulses that support certain political interests. The negative turbulence related to identity politics due to the chaotic circulation of hoaxes and misinformation is feared to lead to a Post-Democratic situation. Taking the case study of the two most influential elections in Indonesia: the 2017 Jakarta provincial election and the 2019 presidential election, this paper will explore how the Post-Truth phenomenon incorporates the issue of identity politics to generate a Post-Democratic situation in Indonesia. Secondary data analysis from the news and social media will be employed to further explain how identity politics is distorted in the media, and how it can generate social and political turbulence.
Keywords: Post-Truth, Identity Politics, Post-Democracy, Indonesia
Introduction
Since the fall of Suharto's New Order regime in 1998, Indonesians have generally enjoyed greater freedom of expression. Millions of citizens use social media, from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram to WhatsApp, to share their views and opinions on a daily basis. The country is currently home to the fourth-highest number of Facebook users in the world. On average, these users spend 8 hours and 36 minutes online every day, making Indonesia the fifth most digitally active country behind the Philippines, Brazil, Thailand and Colombia (Wong, 2019). High Internet use and social media penetration was expected to bring digital empowerment in politics. People are supposed to be more connected and eager to participate in political discussion. However, social media also possess some disadvantages, such as the prob- lem of privacy, online radical group recruitment, and most importantly the proliferation of hoaxes and fake news.
In recent years, Indonesia has been struggling to tackle hoaxes and fake news, especially those circulated in social media. The prevalence of hoaxes and fake news has shaped a new kind of political discourse. Scholars called this Post-Truth politics: a situation in which misinformation is widespread, causing confusion and distrust (Lewandowsky, Ecker & Cook, 2017; Corner, 2017; Suiter, 2016). Prior to 2016, the word "post-truth" was virtually unknown by the media. This all changed with the 2016...