Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Pada pemilu tahun depan, banyak calon baru berbicara tentang hak pilih anak muda. - In next year’s election, many new candidates talk about young people’s right to vote.

di is mostly for:
- physical locations: di rumah (at home), di Jakarta
- some fixed expressions of time: di pagi hari, di masa lalu
pada is more:
- formal and general
- common before time expressions (especially in writing):
  pada tahun depan, pada hari Senin, pada abad ke-20
- used with more abstract “event” nouns:
  pada pertemuan itu (at that meeting), pada kesempatan ini

Pemilu here is an event in time (the election), and tahun depan is also a time phrase, so pada pemilu tahun depan sounds natural and a bit more formal.

You could hear di pemilu tahun depan in casual speech, but pada is the safer, more standard choice in this context.

What is the subject of the sentence? Why is there no they like in English?

The subject is banyak calon baru.

banyak = many
calon = candidate
baru = new

So banyak calon baru = many new candidates.

Indonesian does not need a pronoun like they when the subject is already expressed. English often says:

In next year’s election, many new candidates are talking…

Indonesian simply uses the noun phrase directly as the subject:

banyak calon baru berbicara …
many new candidates talk/speak …

No extra mereka is needed (and it would sound redundant here).

How does the word order in banyak calon baru work? Why isn’t it banyak baru calon?

The order follows a common Indonesian pattern:

Quantifier (how many)
→ banyak (many)
Noun
→ calon (candidate)
Adjective
→ baru (new)

So:

banyak calon baru = many / candidates / new
= many new candidates

You cannot say banyak baru calon; that breaks normal Indonesian word order.

Compare:

tiga rumah besar = three big houses
(tiga = three, rumah = house, besar = big)
sedikit masalah penting = a few important problems

If Indonesian doesn’t mark plural on nouns, how do we know calon is plural here?

Plurality is usually shown by context, numbers, or quantifiers, not by changing the noun.

Here:

banyak already means many, so calon is understood as candidates.
calon itself doesn’t change form.

Some options and their feel:

calon
→ candidate / candidates (number depends on context)
banyak calon
→ many candidates
calon-calon
→ candidates (plural marked by reduplication; often sounds more emphatic or list-like)
banyak calon baru
→ many new candidates (very natural here)
banyak calon-calon baru
→ grammatically possible but feels a bit heavy/redundant in modern usage; usually banyak alone is enough.

What is the difference between berbicara, bicara, and membicarakan?

They’re related but used differently:

berbicara
- More formal/neutral
- Often translated as to speak / to talk
- Often followed by tentang + noun:
  - berbicara tentang hak pilih
    talk about voting rights
bicara
- A bit more informal/colloquial
- In many everyday contexts, bicara ≈ berbicara
  - Dia bicara terlalu cepat.
    He/She speaks too fast.
membicarakan
- Transitive verb: to talk about / discuss (something)
- Directly takes an object (no tentang):
  - membicarakan hak pilih anak muda
    discuss the voting rights of young people

In your sentence, both are possible:

… banyak calon baru berbicara tentang hak pilih anak muda.
… banyak calon baru membicarakan hak pilih anak muda.

The meaning is very close; membicarakan can feel a bit more like “discuss in some detail.”

Why do we need tentang in berbicara tentang hak pilih anak muda?

tentang means about / regarding.

With berbicara, it’s very common to say:
berbicara tentang + topic
- berbicara tentang politik (talk about politics)
- berbicara tentang masa depan (talk about the future)

If you remove tentang:

berbicara hak pilih anak muda
→ sounds odd or incomplete in standard Indonesian.

If you want to avoid tentang, you normally switch to a transitive verb:

membicarakan hak pilih anak muda
(discuss the voting rights of young people)

So:

berbicara tentang X
membicarakan X

are the natural patterns.

How should I understand the structure hak pilih anak muda? Why no dari like hak pilih dari anak muda?

In Indonesian, the pattern:

Noun 1 + Noun 2

often means:

Noun 1 of Noun 2
or
Noun 1 belonging to Noun 2

Here:

hak = right(s)
pilih = choose/vote
hak pilih = voting right(s)
anak muda = young people

So:

hak pilih anak muda = the voting rights of young people.

No preposition like dari (from/of) is needed; the relationship is shown just by putting nouns together.

If you say hak pilih dari anak muda, it’s understandable but feels less natural and more clumsy than the simple hak pilih anak muda.

What’s the nuance difference between hak pilih anak muda and hak pilih untuk anak muda?

Both are possible, but the focus is slightly different:

hak pilih anak muda
- Literally: young people’s voting rights
- Emphasizes that these rights belong to young people.
- Very natural when talking about existing or inherent rights.
hak pilih untuk anak muda
- Literally: voting rights for young people
- Emphasizes that the rights are given/allocated to young people.
- Often used when talking about policies or proposals:
  - e.g. “creating/providing voting rights for young people”

In your sentence, hak pilih anak muda is very natural because candidates are talking about the voting rights that young people have or should have.

Does anak muda mean “children” or “young people”? Why not orang muda?

Although anak often means child, the phrase anak muda is an idiomatic expression meaning young people / youth.

anak muda
- Typical age range: teens to people in their 20s, sometimes early 30s
- Used in everyday speech:
  - Anak muda sekarang… = Young people these days…
orang muda
- Grammatically possible (literally “young person/people”), but much less common.
- Might sound a bit unusual or too literal in everyday talk.

So in discussions about politics and voting, anak muda is the standard way to say young people / the youth.

Why is there no akan to mark future, even though the sentence is about next year?

akan often marks future tense, but it’s not required when the time is already clear from context.

Here, tahun depan (next year) already tells us it’s future time:

Pada pemilu tahun depan, banyak calon baru berbicara…

is understood as:

In next year’s election, many new candidates (will be) talking…

If you add akan, it’s still correct and slightly more explicit:

… banyak calon baru akan berbicara tentang hak pilih anak muda.

So:

Without akan: natural, especially in spoken or neutral style.
With akan: still natural, sometimes a bit more formal or deliberate.

Could we say banyak calon baru yang berbicara? What does yang do here?

Yes, you can say:

Pada pemilu tahun depan, banyak calon baru yang berbicara tentang hak pilih anak muda.

Here’s the nuance:

banyak calon baru berbicara …
- Simple subject + verb.
- “many new candidates talk/speak …”
banyak calon baru yang berbicara …
- yang links banyak calon baru to a descriptive clause.
- Feels like: “the many new candidates who talk/speak…”
- In practice, in this sentence, the meaning difference is small.

In many cases:

banyak [noun] [verb]
banyak [noun] yang [verb]

are both acceptable. Adding yang can:

make the structure clearer,
sometimes sound a bit more formal or written-style.

What exactly does pemilu mean? Is it an abbreviation?

Yes, pemilu is a commonly used shortened form of:

pemilihan umum
- pemilihan = election (from pilih = choose)
- umum = general (public)

So pemilu = general election (national-level elections).

Notes:

In news or formal writing, you’ll see both pemilihan umum and pemilu.
In everyday speech, pemilu is very common and fully standard.