Fajarasia.co – Chairperson of the Indonesian House of Representatives, Puan Maharani, highlighted the rise of post-truth phenomena, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. He also invited students to fight against the phenomenon which is an era in which lies can disguise themselves as truth through the hoax smash movement.
This was conveyed by Puan when she was a speaker at the International Webinar of the Psychology Study Program at the Syaikh Abdurrahman Siddik State Islamic Institute (IAIN SAS), Bangka Belitung, Thursday (14/7/2022).
“The post-truth phenomenon is like a pandemic, it spreads quickly and globally, and can infect anyone indiscriminately,” said Puan.
According to the first woman who served as Chair of the Indonesian House of Representatives, nowadays many people from any community group and any level of education are easily infected with post-truth. They, said Puan, tend to ignore facts and ethics in their opinion and agree more on things that are close to their personal beliefs.
“In the post-truth world, what triumphs are hoaxes and conspiracy theories that are not based on facts but are widely spread and believed by many people. And when they want to straighten it out, they hide behind the term ‘freedom of opinion’,” said the former Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture.
Puan added, nowadays many people unconsciously take confirmation bias, which is the tendency to look for evidence to support their opinion or belief. This action is carried out by ignoring the empirical evidence which states otherwise.
“It’s not even an exaggeration to say that Indonesia is actually still in a state of hoax emergency,” said Puan.
“Throughout 2021 alone, the government said it had blocked hundreds of thousands of content on social media and the internet because it was classified as a hoax,” he continued.
In the discussion entitled ‘Post-Truth Phenomenon in the Time of Covid 19’, Puan said that post-truth draws energy from people’s fears and anxiety. Because Post-truth begins by planting seeds of doubt in people’s hearts and then grows with the fertilizer of fear.
“That fear is getting bigger and bigger, especially in a situation like the Covid-19 pandemic, which can lead to public panic and trust decadence,” said Puan.
“We saw that at the beginning of the Covid-19 entry into Indonesia, panic buying occurred, people suspected each other and many other negative things happened because hoaxes were rampant on social media and chat applications,” he continued.
According to Puan, post-truth is also what causes a phenomenon where some people don’t believe that Covid-19 is real. The group considers Covid-19 to be a mere conspiracy so that some do not want to maintain health protocols.
“As a result, the number of Covid-19 transmissions increases and can lead to the loss of someone’s life. Our national efforts to fight Covid-19 by vaccinating are also affected by post-truth,” said Puan.
Hoax about vaccination had spread some time ago. The false information said that vaccination was only a project for the benefit of certain parties, some even claimed that vaccines were dangerous and the emergence of various other conspiracy theories.
“Even though the scientific evidence is clear, vaccination saves people’s lives from Covid-19,” said Puan.
Therefore, the grandson of the Proclaimer of the Republic of Indonesia, Bung Karno, invites all parties to fight the post-truth phenomenon. Especially, said Puan, academics including students.
“We must not lose against hoaxes, because they can lead to the loss of the lives of our fellow countrymen. The question is how? This is a trust issue, a trust issue,” said the graduate from the University of Indonesia.
Puan said, it is necessary to understand the variables that can make people believe. He said that millions of empirical evidence would not be enough if it was not supported by expertise in convincing people so that in the end it was still post-truth that won.
“Don’t just think that people will immediately believe the scientific evidence or facts that we present. We have to understand what people’s biggest fears are, what their biggest hopes are,” said Puan.
“And which communication channel is the best for us to be able to make people believe or trust what we say,” he continued.
For this reason, Ms. Puan assessed that this webminar was very appropriate. This is because one part of psychology is to explore the human way of thinking.
“I hope that from this webinar, applicable solutions can be born that can help our national cooperation to fight Covid-19,” concluded Puan.*****
