Being (Good) Citizen
Since there were government elections recently in Indonesia, I am intrigued to write this story. Based on the results of several quick counts, seems like the ruling president would run again. Well, the result cannot be determined yet without the result of real count, but most likely that’s the case since the margins from the quick counts are quite wide. However, as a disclaimer, this article will not discuss about neither sides. I have no intention in supporting any sides. What I would like to discuss is about voting itself.
Problem
Actually, I got this problem from my colleague who refused to come and vote. There are many reasons why people don’t vote. First, they might be apathetic about the government; they don’t believe in the government having impacts in their lives. Next, they might be too lazy to vote. The election day was a public holiday, so they would like to do refreshing activities. Well, I think these 2 are the most common reasons. However, my colleague had a different reason. He thought that his vote doesn’t have any impact in the election itself: how will one vote be impactful?
I think his reason is valid actually. There is a very small probability that one vote (his vote, to be precise) will change things. For example, there are 100 people (including my colleague) who can vote among 2 candidates. Suppose that he doesn’t participate in the vote, so there are 99 people remaining. In order for his vote to be impactful, there can be 2 cases:
- 50:49 favoring first candidate, or
- 49:50 favoring second candidate.
His vote can balance the vote, if he chooses the right candidate. In other cases, such as 51:48, the result cannot be altered by his vote (52:48 or 51:49). What are the probability of one of those 2 cases above happening? Assuming equal probability in voting, according to Binomial distribution, the probability is just above 15%! In this case, we assume there are only 100 people. In Indonesian case, there are almost 200 million people, so the probability will be negligible.
Well, I guess his opinion is very logical. Our single vote won’t be impactful in the election, i.e. even if we vote, we won’t change anything. Then, should we really vote?
Discussion
In this case, I think there are two different perspectives. The reasoning above is a microscopic perspective, viewing things as a single unit or entity. It doesn’t consider the impact of other units or entities. I’m not saying that this perspective is wrong. Both of the perspectives have their own applications. In our daily lives, we mostly use microscopic perspective. Choosing mode of transportation to the office is one excellent example. If you use public transportation, the level of traffic or pollution will be less, but it is very very insignificant! Why should we care about this?
In macroscopic perspective, we need to think collectively. It’s true that one person might have insignificant impact. However, 1 million or even 1 thousand people might have huge impact combined. This is the perspective of the CEOs in the companies and the governments have in mind. Using previous example, it might be true that one person itself has minor impact in the traffic level, but their goal is for the greater good of a city: reducing traffic in the city. That’s why they promote public transportation in expectation that many people will use it. To assess their success, they might use collective metrics (such as proportion of people in the city using public transportation), instead of a small group of people.
That’s why in the election we will hear many sayings such as ‘Your vote counts’ (true, it counts, but not impactful LOL); the election committee’s objective is to increase the proportion of voter.
Conclusion
Therefore, should we really vote? It’s true that microscopically voting as an individual is useless. However, we should think beyond that. Think about why election exists in the first place. Think of the greater good for your country in the future. Think in perspective of the election committee. I believe it might change your view about your country and your lives. Of course, I will vote, even after realizing that the impact of my vote is not significant. It is one of the responsibilities of the (good) citizen, thus the title of this article. Do your responsibility and pray for the best.
What do you think about vote? Do you have other opinions? Please put them in the comments :)
