Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Pemerintah membuat kampanye singkat di sekolah tentang pentingnya menggunakan hak pilih dan menyampaikan opini dengan damai. - The government makes a short campaign at schools about the importance of using the right to vote and expressing opinions peacefully.

When it’s written with a capital letter (Pemerintah), it usually refers to the specific current government of the country (e.g. the Indonesian government).
With a lowercase pemerintah, it can mean government in general, or a government of some place.

Indonesian doesn’t have articles like the / a, so Pemerintah here is naturally read as the government from context and capitalization.

Why is the verb membuat used with kampanye? Could I say mengadakan kampanye instead?

Membuat kampanye literally means to make/create a campaign. It’s acceptable and understandable in Indonesian, especially in casual or neutral writing.

However, many Indonesians would more naturally say:

mengadakan kampanye (to hold a campaign)
melakukan kampanye (to conduct a campaign)
meluncurkan kampanye (to launch a campaign – slightly more formal/media-style)

Nuance:

membuat kampanye focuses on creating/designing the campaign.
mengadakan kampanye focuses on organizing/holding the event.
In your sentence, mengadakan kampanye singkat would sound slightly more idiomatic, but membuat is not wrong.

What exactly does kampanye mean here? Is it only for elections?

Kampanye typically means campaign, and it’s very commonly used for political or election campaigns.

In modern usage, it’s also used for awareness campaigns or social campaigns, like:

kampanye kesehatan (health campaign)
kampanye anti-rokok (anti-smoking campaign)

In your sentence, because it mentions hak pilih (right to vote), kampanye has a political context: an informational/awareness campaign related to voting and peaceful political expression.

Why is singkat placed after kampanye? Can it go before the noun?

In Indonesian, adjectives usually come after the noun they describe.

kampanye singkat = short campaign
sekolah besar = big school
pelajaran penting = important lesson

Putting the adjective before the noun (singkat kampanye) is ungrammatical in standard Indonesian.

So kampanye singkat is the normal and correct order.

What’s the difference between singkat and pendek? Could I say kampanye pendek?

Both singkat and pendek can be translated as short, but they’re used a bit differently.

singkat = short in duration, brief, concise
- rapat singkat (brief meeting)
- penjelasan singkat (short/concise explanation)
pendek = short in length or height, also sometimes duration
- orang pendek (short person)
- rok pendek (short skirt)
- waktu yang pendek (a short time)

Kampanye singkat is the more natural choice: it suggests a campaign that is brief/not long.

Kampanye pendek is understandable but much less common; it may sound slightly odd or non‑native in this context.

Does di sekolah here mean at school (general) or in schools (plural)? How do Indonesians understand it?

Di sekolah is ambiguous in form but clear in context:

It can mean at school in a general sense (the school environment).
It can also imply in schools (plural) when we’re talking about a general program involving many schools.

Indonesian nouns don’t change form for plural, so singular/plural is usually understood from context.

If you really want to emphasize plural schools, you can say:

di sekolah-sekolah = in (various) schools

So your sentence could naturally be understood as in schools (plural) if we’re talking about a national or wide-reaching campaign.

What is the function of tentang in this sentence? Are there synonyms I should know?

Tentang is a preposition that means about / regarding / concerning.

In your sentence:

tentang pentingnya menggunakan hak pilih...
= about the importance of using the right to vote...

Common near-synonyms:

mengenai – about, regarding (slightly more formal)
perihal – regarding, concerning (formal, used in letters/documents)

In most everyday sentences, tentang and mengenai are interchangeable:

kampanye tentang kesehatan
kampanye mengenai kesehatan

What does pentingnya mean grammatically? Why is -nya attached to penting?

Penting means important.
Adding -nya here turns it into a noun phrase meaning the importance (of).

penting (adjective) = important
pentingnya (noun-like) = the importance

This is a common pattern:

sehat → sehatnya (the healthiness / how healthy it is)
bagus → bagusnya (the goodness / how good it is)

In your sentence:

pentingnya menggunakan hak pilih
= the importance of using the right to vote

So -nya is acting like a nominalizer that lets you treat penting as “the importance” rather than “important”.

Why is it menggunakan hak pilih instead of just memilih?

Both are possible, but they emphasize different things:

memilih = to vote / to choose
- Warga harus memilih. (Citizens must vote.)
menggunakan hak pilih = to use/exercise one’s right to vote
- Warga harus menggunakan hak pilih mereka.
  (Citizens must use their right to vote.)

Menggunakan hak pilih highlights the idea that voting is a right that you actively exercise, not just an action you do. That fits well with a campaign message about democratic rights and responsibilities.

What does hak pilih literally mean, and is it a fixed expression?

Yes, hak pilih is a common fixed expression.

hak = right (as in human rights, legal rights)
pilih (from memilih) = to choose / to vote

So hak pilih = the right to vote / voting right.

Related expressions:

hak suara – can also be voting right / vote, often in formal contexts (e.g. jumlah hak suara = number of votes).
hak asasi manusia – human rights

In everyday political talk, hak pilih is a standard, natural phrase.

Why does the sentence say menyampaikan opini? Could I say mengungkapkan or menyatakan opini instead?

Menyampaikan opini means to deliver / express an opinion. Literally: to convey an opinion.

You can use several verbs with opini/pendapat:

menyampaikan opini/pendapat – to convey/express an opinion
mengungkapkan opini/pendapat – to reveal/express an opinion (a bit more “bring out”)
mengemukakan pendapat – to put forward an opinion (fairly formal)
menyatakan pendapat – to state an opinion (more formal/legalistic)

In this sentence, menyampaikan opini is neutral and sounds natural, especially in the context of peaceful political expression.

You could say mengungkapkan opini dengan damai, and it would still sound correct; it just has a slightly different flavor (more like “voice/reveal” your opinion).

Is opini the same as pendapat? Which sounds more natural here?

They are very close in meaning:

opini – opinion (often feels a bit more formal, borrowed from European languages)
pendapat – opinion, view (very common, neutral Indonesian word)

In many cases, they’re interchangeable:

menyampaikan opini
menyampaikan pendapat

In a sentence about politics and democracy, pendapat might sound slightly more “local” and common:

...dan menyampaikan pendapat dengan damai.

But opini is also correct and widely understood.

What does dengan damai mean exactly? Could I say secara damai instead?

Both dengan damai and secara damai mean peacefully / in a peaceful way.

dengan damai (with peace / in peace) – commonly used in both spoken and written Indonesian.
secara damai (in a peaceful manner) – sounds a bit more formal or written.

In your sentence:

menyampaikan opini dengan damai
= expressing opinions peacefully

You can safely use either:

menyampaikan opini dengan damai
menyampaikan opini secara damai

Dengan damai is slightly more colloquial and very natural.

How do Indonesians know this is past (the government made a campaign) when there’s no tense marking?

Indonesian verbs don’t change form for tense. Time is understood from:

Context
Time expressions (e.g. kemarin yesterday, sudah already, akan will)

In your sentence:

Pemerintah membuat kampanye singkat di sekolah...

By itself, this could mean:

The government makes a short campaign... (present/general)
The government made a short campaign... (past)

If you want to make it clearly past, you might add:

Pemerintah sudah membuat kampanye singkat... (The government has already made...)
Kemarin pemerintah membuat kampanye singkat... (Yesterday the government made...)

But in many real-life contexts, listeners/readers already know whether we’re talking about something that happened or a general practice, so explicit tense words are often omitted.

Could I move di sekolah to a different position, like Pemerintah di sekolah membuat kampanye singkat? Would the meaning change?

Word order matters for clarity.

Original:

Pemerintah membuat kampanye singkat di sekolah...
= The government made a short campaign in/at schools.

If you say:

Pemerintah di sekolah membuat kampanye singkat...

It now sounds like the government in the school (as if there is a specific “school government” or a government level located in the school), which is confusing or wrong.

Better options if you want to move things:

Di sekolah, pemerintah membuat kampanye singkat tentang...
(At schools, the government made a short campaign about...)
Pemerintah membuat kampanye singkat tentang... di sekolah.
(Still okay; di sekolah clearly modifies membuat kampanye.)

So, keep di sekolah close to the action it describes (where the campaign happens), and avoid inserting it right after Pemerintah.