Suara Baru (New Voices) invited young filmmakers to create video stories in order to understand youth perspectives on the elections, its candidates, and ultimately their hopes and aspirations of 2014 Indonesia’s Presidential Elections.
Indonesia held its presidential election on July 9, 2014. This was an important election for the country, with those in power from the New Order regime trying to make a comeback. Its importance was magnified as millions of new generation of voters, some of whom are too young to remember the New Order and Reformasi period, were voting for the first time in their lives.
According to the date from KPU (Election Commission), there were more than 186 million eligible voters in 2014 elections, over one-third were first-time voters. While young people are traditionally marginalised in civic environments, this election presented an opportunity where young people could make a huge difference in the outcomes.
With this in mind, EngageMedia launched Suara Baru (New Voices), where we invited young filmmakers to create video stories in order to understand youth perspectives on the elections, its candidates, and ultimately their hopes and aspirations for the country. The produced videos, which represent Indonesian youth from Java to West Papua to migrant workers in Malaysia, are available for viewing and downloading in the collection here.