Oral History as Counter Narrative: Bocor Alus Politic Podcast vs Framing by State Authorities on Indonesia’s Regional Election Policy (2024-2026)

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-624-6_30How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Oral History; Political Podcast Counter-narrative; Regional Election Policy; Bocor Alus Politik; State Hegemony

Abstract

In the contemporary political landscape, state authorities often dominate the production of written documents and official archives to legitimize public policies, thereby silencing the perspectives of opposing groups. This study examines oral history as a democratic documentation method that constructs a counter-narrative to the state’s official discourse regarding Indonesia’s regional head election (Pilkada) policies (2024–2026), focusing specifically on the Bocor Alus Politik (BAP) podcast produced by Tempo Media. The study employs library research methods—incorporating Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and oral history methodology—to analyze state policy documents and three selected episodes of the BAP podcast. The analysis reveals a stark discursive dichotomy. The official state narrative emphasizes the urgency of indirect elections (conducted via Regional Houses of Representatives/DPRD) to achieve a budget saving of IDR 37 trillion (reallocated to the free nutritious meal program), ensure central-regional policy alignment, and restore the system to its original 1945 Constitution framework. Conversely, the oral testimonies of journalists and experts on BAP expose “backstage” realities: the consolidation of power by the KIM Plus coalition; the role of “political dowries” and “sweeteners” as primary drivers of high political costs; the use of Acting Regional Heads (Penjabat or PJ) to secure election victories; intimidation of the opposition party (PDIP) through “legal case operations”; and systematic efforts to weaken the Constitutional Court. Although the Constitutional Court ultimately ruled—via Decision Number 195/PUU-XXIV/2026—that regional elections would continue to be held via direct voting, the BAP counter-narrative proved to be a vital informal archive of critical political memory that challenged state hegemony. Investigative journalism-based political podcasts represent an effective form of digital oral history for democratizing access to political memory and giving voice to subaltern groups, although their validity remains constrained by editorial curation and the power dynamics of commercial platforms.

Copyright

© 2026 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  - Donny Maulana
AU  - Bernandino Davin Panji Jenewa
AU  - Hariyono Hariyono
AU  - Arif Subekti
AU  - Moch Nizam Alfahmi
AU  - Setia Ningrum
AU  - Eko Hasumi Aditya
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/19
TI  - Oral History as Counter Narrative: Bocor Alus Politic Podcast vs Framing by State Authorities on Indonesia’s Regional Election Policy (2024-2026)
BT  - Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on History, Social Sciences, and Education (ICHSE 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 443
EP  - 456
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-624-6_30
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-624-6_30
ID  - Maulana2026
ER  -