Co-Optation of Political Elites in Public Spaces (A Semiotic Study of Building Colors Ahead of the Regional Election in Tomohon/Manado)

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-495-2_6How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Political Co-Optation; Public Space; Tomohon Manado; Church Elite; GMIM

Abstract

Partai Golkar, including North Sulawesi, was the ruling party during the New Order regime. However, after the New Order regime collapsed in 1998, almost 184 new political parties emerged. The electoral system was changed to an open one, where citizens can choose legislative and executive candidates. After 10 years of the Partai Demokrat ruling North Sulawesi Province, since 2015, the PDIP, with its red party color, has been in power in this province. The emergence of new political parties has made each party compete for votes, and because Christianity is the majority religion and the Christian Evangelical Church in Minahasa is the oldest and largest church, it inevitably becomes a bone of contention for the political elite. The church, which is supposed to be a neutral and independent institution, has changed because the church elite began to enter politics and use religious symbols to attract its congregation. Facing the 2024 elections, almost all public spaces in Tomohon City and Manado are painted red. Citizens unite to articulate their interests and form discursive opinions and common will. This research will analyze the phenomenon using Peirce's semiotic analysis. Data is collected through a focus group discussion with four resource persons in North Minahasa. The conclusion is that using red is an elite co-optation in the public sphere to win certain political parties. Painting red on school buildings and churches violates the Election Law. In addition to the use of church symbols and the allowance of church elites who are candidates for the legislature or executive to conduct campaign activities in the church or in worship services, it has the potential to create jealousy and trigger conflict between people.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Wulan Purnama Sari
AU  - Suzy Azeharie
AU  - Claribel Halim
AU  - Tracy Zagitania
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/29
TI  - Co-Optation of Political Elites in Public Spaces (A Semiotic Study of Building Colors Ahead of the Regional Election in Tomohon/Manado)
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Economics, Business, Social, and Humanities 2025 (ICEBSH 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 50
EP  - 61
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-495-2_6
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-495-2_6
ID  - Sari2025
ER  -