Winner with the Challenging Spirit

The "winner" justification is the result of surveys over the last several years that had resulted in two presidential candidates with the most significant electability for the 2019 general election, namely Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto.

KOMPAS/WISNU WIDIANTORO

Joko Widodo and KH Ma\'ruf Amin

The "winner" justification is the result of surveys over the last several years that had resulted in two presidential candidates with the most significant electability for the 2019 general election, namely Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Prabowo Subianto.

Jokowi\'s electability is around 50 percent. This can be seen, among others, from the results of the Denny JA Indonesia Survey Circle (LSI) survey in August 2018, namely 52.2 percent. Meanwhile, Prabowo\'s electability, according to the survey results, is 29.5 percent. However, the real victor will only be known after the April 17, 2019 election.

The road to victory requires hard work, including by Jokowi. The reason is that, even though Jokowi has many achievements in the field of economics and public welfare, it is not an easy thing to sell those successes.

The existence of a difference of about 20 percent between the level of Jokowi\'s performance satisfaction (currently around 70 percent) and the level of electability shows that some people are reluctant to choose him.

Economic growth, which is below the target, the gap between the rich and the poor, unemployment and the unstable prices of basic necessities may become issues raised by the Prabowo-Sandiaga Uno camp.

The effectiveness of the move will be increasingly felt if it is united  with the issue of identity politics as disclosed by Francis Fukuyama. He emphasized that identity politics was no longer a minor phenomenon, but had become a major concept to explain global problems, including the rich and poor gap in the practice of democracy (Against Identity Politics, The New Tribalism and The Crisis of Democracy, Foreign Affairs, September/October 2018).

Uniting identity politics with public dissatisfaction because of economic inequality or a feeling of disrespect will be an effective way to garner support. Donald Trump\'s victory over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 US presidential election becomes a very clear example.

The strategy of counterattacking from Prabowo’s  camp by smartly persuading marginal people with a basic level of education needs to be responded to more intelligently and accurately.

KOMPAS/HENDRA A SETYAWAN

Prabowo Subianto and Sandiaga Uno

The Jokowi-Ma\'ruf Amin camp must have a precise strategy as the government data (the Central Statistics Agency) can be designed to work on the group of people who feel marginalized. Meanwhile, the macroeconomic data, which is used as the basis for Jokowi\'s common policies, is not easily understood by the lower-middle-income public.

Since  the Prabowo-Sandi camp is still "empty" with achievements, they will make simple narratives or symbols of public dissatisfaction issues that touch the public emotions. The ability to move voters by narrating the weaknesses that touch public emotions should not be underestimated.

Political digitalization has proven effective in persuading public emotions rather than rational explanation. Sandiaga\'s figure seems to be optimized to win millennial voters whose potential is around 100 million people.

It is better for the Jokowi-Ma\'ruf camp to equip itself with a challenging spirit. Throw away the spirit of the incumbent, which will only reap an established feeling, a premature victory, arrogance and underestimation of the opponent.

An offensive strategy must also be prioritized so that in responding to the attack by the Prabowo-Sandi camp, it does not give an impression of being reactive, stuttering, panicked, and angry. The behavior of supporters, volunteers, especially cadres from backing and supporting political parties, must represent the characteristics of the presidential and vice presidential candidates, namely being soft, patient, simple, and smiling.

Meanwhile, the Prabowo\'s camp is an "opponent" who must have the spirit of fighter and warrior. The characters of “opponent” cannot feel defeated. If the word lose must be interpreted as not winning because a fighter always has big goals and its success often requires a long term. Taking care of the spirit of long-term struggle is the true characters of "opponent".

Nevertheless, the spirit of the fighter should not be trapped into the attitude of megalothymia (Fukuyama, 2018), the spirit of pumping tyrannical ambitions and superiority. This trap will trigger the campaign to be trapped in an arena of the screams of anger and hatred. The campaign period must be used as an opportunity to raise issues that refresh public sanity; not imagology, the feeling of being great, admired, spectacular, even though it is terrible inside.

KOMPAS/HERU SRI KUMORO

J. Kristiadi

The 2019 Presidential Election campaign strategy should shift from political issues that are packed with primordial sentiments to economic issues and people\'s welfare. The change will be very grateful considering the debate about natural and religious characteristics will only drain emotions, while debates on economic issues will encourage and prioritize rationality.

Therefore, whoever is the winner in the 2019 general election, it will be a victory of the people. Without such desires, democracy only produces hordes of losers. The victory of the political elite will only make people feel colonized. The practice of democracy over the last two decades has actually created a minority (political elite), who wins.

J. Kristiadi, Senior Researcher, Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)