PDIP East Java Holds RedTalks Forum to Hear Youth Aspirations
Said Abdullah, chair of the East Java (Jatim) regional leadership council (DPD) of the PDIP, has said that today’s young people have vastly different experiences compared with the baby boomer generation at the same age. Generations Y, Z and even early Generation Alpha now live in ‘two worlds’ — the real world and the digital world.
He said the development of digital access has become a bridge for young people to reach a wider world, follow various events, and gain more complex experiences than previous generations.
According to him, this situation has made today’s youth more critical in viewing various issues, because they have the opportunity to compare situations across different regions. For this reason, a more dialogic pattern of communication is needed to build relationships with the younger generation.
“On that basis, over the past two years the East Java DPD of PDI Perjuangan has held the RedTalks forum. We package RedTalks as our way of listening to the voices of young people. For us, the voice of the young is the voice of idealism; they are not yet bound by various interests,” Said said in a statement on Friday (24/7/2026).
“This year, the second edition of RedTalks will be held on Saturday, 25 July 2026 at the Malang Creative Centre. The dialogue will discuss ‘Indonesia Belongs to Us All’ — not only to a handful of political and economic elites. It will explore young people’s imagination of Indonesia’s future, its challenges, and criticism of the behaviour between generations,” he added.
To spark the dialogue, RedTalks will feature a number of young figures, including Dr Selvi Asna Prestianawati, lecturer at the Faculty of Economics and Business at Brawijaya University (Unibraw); Dr Suko Widodo, lecturer at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences at Airlangga University (Unair); and comedians Abdel Achrian (Cing Abdel) and Dewangga.
In addition, the forum will also present several young activists, namely Kafitan Aidil Fitra Sukirman from the BEM of Unibraw; Aryo Bimo Soebagio, deputy coordinator of the joint BEM for the Greater Malang area; Mochamad Ali Firdaus from the Malang city branch of GMNI; and Benny Miftahul Arifin, chair of the Malang city branch of PMII.
“We invite all young people in Greater Malang to discuss together, to love Indonesia by sharing ideas about education, academic freedom, the future of the economy, creative spaces, and a range of issues that concern young people today,” Said concluded.
For information, RedTalks will be broadcast live via detik.com, so friends who cannot attend in person in Malang will have the opportunity to watch online while still being able to submit aspirations, questions or objections.