My office is just a few feet away from the famous UGM’s Roundabout (aka. Bunderan UGM), which is a popular venue for UGM students to protest against…. everything. So, everytime SBY’s administration is proposing something, I have to hear annoying march and disturbing oration. It’s not that I against them, because most of the time I go for their views. It takes quite sometime for me to realize what they are doing wrong. It’s not the content that makes me sick, but the presentation that stirs me (and the rest of Jogja community) away.
We live in a world where package is everything. Where package overshadows the actual content. By saying that, I didn’t mean that you should protest against Sumadi’s appearing on Kedaulatan Rakyat collumn every single edition, and wearing a pink and cuddly outfit. For non Jogjakartans out there, Sumadi is the person who owns the largest selling newspaper in Jogja, Kedaulatan Rakyat. And yes, he appeared on every single edition of KR.
I’m saying that student protest should package their statement in an effective manner as possible to achive the ultimate goal(s). Shouting and yelling is not effective at all. It is, infact, very ineffective.
Therefore, I decided to write several tips for student protester out there on: ‘How to protest in an effective way’:
- You protest to raise awareness on certain issue to the public, press, or even better international community. Don’t mix your personal sentiment to the government with the protest. It’ll make you looking like an emotionally-unstable student who has no life. TIP: Try to appeal the public by doing something that appeals them (doh!). Don’t give away flower becuse it is so overused and thus making it very ineffective.
Dress and groom nicely. The other day I saw a lead protester wearing a green army jacket that seems hasn’t been washed since it was bought. And don’t get me started how ugly the hair looks. You may think that people doesnt judge the way you look, but the truth is they DO. TIP: Take a bath before protesting. If you dont take a bath often, take a regular bath a week before protesting. Wash your hair. Put on some Nivea moisturizer (or even better: Body Shop’s Tea Tree Oil Mattifying Moisture Gel&mdhash;pictured right) to enhance your skin’s complexion. On P-day, wear a clean clothes. Tucking your shirts will helps.- Make a nice protest boards, because a good and visually engaging protest boards can be as effective as a good oration. Don’t just write a lame-ass phrases and write it on a piece of cardboard. TIP: Ask a friend majoring in communication and/or graphic design to design a complete visual communication tools. It doesn’t has to be expensive, but it has to be visually effective.
- Be a good PR. Practice your speech few days before protesting. As a friend who you think a good speeechwriter to help you wrting your speech.
- Drop happening-art. It sucks, weird, and making you looking like an emotionally-unstable student who has no life.
- Behave. Manner does matter. Act like a responsible adult.
- Be creative. Design an integrated concept for your protest. Create a distinct visual identity. This will helps people to recognize what you are fighting against.
Well thats about it. Happy Protesting!
say, you should write a mini book on “how to hold a great protest” :p.
Your view might not be the same as the protester though. I don’t think that they will agree on tucking their outfits on the P-day since most of them are .. how do you call ‘anti-kemapanan’ .. so tucking outfits *is* taboo. it will betrayed they idealism of fighting for whom they call “rakyat”. “To fight for the citizen mean you ahve to be one of them, you got to live like them, and then you’ll understand the essence”, maybe something like that.
Me? no, i’m not taht idealistic, unfortunately. Nah, I don’t like politic. Though, I like to curse politicians :p.
I really hope your words will somehow drop by to their mind .. as I agree, packaging is somehow important and packagin could be very variative.. mass power, happening art, and so on.
Pardon me for my english.
Good Points.
The thing is, if they decided to go under-dressed becuse they are against kemapanan, they are being selfish. Why? Because they should be protesting for the Indonesian people’s sake, not for their ego’s sake.
I don’t know in what world you live in, but you don’t really seem to know what protesting is all about.
It’s about rebelling and being critical.. not about appeal, marketing and selling yourself to the outside world.
Protesters want to challange the government and force it to adopt their demands. After all so many countries call themselves democracies. But when people actually do dare to protest and spell out their demands and how the country should be run, then they get intimidated or beaten up by the riot police, the media discredits them and politicians don’t get tired of explaining that their policies are the best no matter how many people protest. Since nobody will manage to get more than 50% of the population to protest, the government will always argue that most people must be on its side then. And it would be so undemocratic to listen to a minority, while the majority seems to adore the government, since they are sitting at home watching TV and often enough don’t give a shit about politics.
“I don’t know in what world you live in, but you don’t really seem to know what protesting is all about.”
Aha personal attacks, is this one of those things you failed protesters do?
Being critical is not equal to being dumb and ignorant. Sure its nice be rebellious to the supreme power by yelling things. But youre not creating impact, most passerby doesnt event understand what you were saying. In fact those rude protesters are destructing the image of democracy.
Lets not make protesting an opportunity to stroke your ego, but to create changes and impacts instead. The only way to do so, you have to start packaging your protests as sophisticated as possible.