When Padang food dragged into Indonesia's elections

The recent parliamentary and presidential elections ran peacefully despite miseries, caused by the deaths of so many working committee members of polling stations, members of elections supervisory agency, and policemen while fulfilling their electoral duties.

Apart from their peaceful convening, these parliamentary and presidential elections which were held simultaneously across the country, including its remote hinterlands and isles, have obviously contributed to an emergence of a divided society.

The division among the community members is mainly caused by their different political preferences due to the fact that they have to select either the Joko Widodo-Ma'ruf Amin pair or their contender, the Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Uno pair.

The absence of third pair of presidential and vice presidential candidates or an independent pair of presidential and vice presidential candidates due to strict rules in the Indonesian electoral law has made eligible voters have no alternatives.

Amid this reality, political maturity is undoubtedly indispensable for staunch supporters of both camps because if they fail to be mature enough in responding to an unexpected defeat of their preferable candidates, they may even create an unnecessary new problem.

One of the unnecessary problems that certain individuals have created because of their uneasiness in finding the defeat of their preferable presidential and vice presidential fair in West Sumatra Province is their recent calls for boycotting the "Padang Food".

This hilarious move that several individuals recently echoed through the popular social media platform, Facebook, in response to landslide defeat of the Joko Widodo (Jokowi)-Ma'ruf Amin in West Sumatra went viral but it failed to gain the people's support.

Instead, a group of the Jokowi-Amin pair's volunteers who call themselves as the Minang Community Members of Greater Jakarta Areas rejected the move of boycotting the "Padang Food" by eating at a Padang restaurant in East Jakarta (Kompas TV, April 28, 2019).

The similar support for the Padang Food has also been showcased by Indonesian Vice Presidential candidate number 02 Sandiaga Uno.

"I have had lunch at Sederhana Padang Restaurant. Thank God, the restaurant is crowded. We have to give our full support for such this local culinary business."

"Please do not relate it to the presidential elections. Our economy is able to grow, and many job markets are created partly  because of these culinary businesses," Uno wrote in his official Twitter account on April 26, 2019.

Despite this ridiculous call for boycotting it, the delicacy of Padang Food has not just been popular among the people of Minangkabau and those from different ethnic groups in the Indonesian archipelago but it has also gained recognition of world's food travelers.

Travor James, for instance, published his confession after traveling to Indonesia and eating at Padang foodstalls in his video which has so far been watched by at least 1,645,428 people in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt8KCD08qns.

Another food ranger that has testified the delicacy of the Padang Food is Mark Wiens. He has traveled to different parts of the world and tasted various authentic foods, including the Padang Food, during his stay in Jakarta in 2016.

His experience of tasting the delicacy of these West Sumatran people's authentic food
at the "Surya Masakan Padang" Restaurant on Jalan Bendungan Hilir Raya No.15, Bendungan Hilir, Jakarta, was then proliferated to public through a video.

He gave the title of his popular video, which has so far been watched by 1,348,484 people through Youtube, as "AMAZING Indonesian Food - Beef Rendang and Gulai Otak!".

As revealed in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2E9xSVTMyI, Mark Wiens looked happy to have "Rendang", an Indonesian dish made of beef which has been regarded by CNN as the world's best food.

Considering the outstanding reputation of Padang Food, the people at large have ignored this ridiculous move for boycotting it because it is obviously popular among ordinary Indonesians, and even, among important figures competing in the presidential elections.

For the staunch supporters and loyalists of the two pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates, they need to remain patient to wait for the final real count by the General Elections Commission (KPU).

According to Constitutional Court ex-chief justice Mahfud MD, the KPU will announce the vote recapitulation result on May 22. He has appealed to all parties to continue to monitor the voting process till the KPU's official announcement of the final results of the recent general elections on May 22.

The political maturity of the competing camps' supporters and loyalists is needed to get rid of unnecessary tensions among community members due to unnecessary responses to defeats of their preferable pair of presidential and vice presidential candidates.