Strengthen the Substance of the Third Debate
The media crew watch the debate between presidential candidate number 01 Joko Widodo and presidential candidate number 02 Prabowo Subianto at a media center at the Sultan Hotel in Jakarta on Sunday (17/2/2019).
JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The General Elections Commission (KPU) has expressed hope that the third debate of the presidential election can be more substantive. In order to realize it, there needs to be effort from the candidates to further elaborate their ideas.
The KPU will evaluate on Wednesday (20/2/2019) the second debate of the presidential election. This evaluation must be used to strengthen the design of the third debate on March 17 so that the vice-presidential candidates who will also attend the debate further explore their programs and ideas.
However, improving the mechanism of the debate also needs to be followed by the political will of the candidates to maximize the available time by elaborative disclosure.
The second debate between the two presidential candidates with the theme of energy, natural resources, environment, food, and infrastructure last Sunday evening was judged better than the first debate on Jan. 17. However, the second debate was considered to have not been optimal in encouraging the presidential candidates to expose their programs deeply and measurably. The depth of the substance of the programmatic campaign is important to influence critical indecisive voters.
KPU chairman Arief Budiman said at the KPU building in Jakarta on Tuesday (19/2) that the KPU will continue to improve the debate mechanism to encourage the candidates to be more elaborative in presenting their visions or programs.
"According to the plan, we will evaluate the two candidate pairs, television organizers and the General Election Supervisory Board (Bawaslu), tomorrow (on Wednesday). We want to hear about the organization of the second debate. We want improvements in every debate," Arief said.
Explorative debates
The emergence of exploratory debates that began with short video screenings in the second debate was part of an effort to encourage the candidates to be increasingly free and at liberty to explore ideas and explain their programs to the public.
However, to create a more interesting and quality debate, according to Arief, the improvement of the debate mechanism and the freedom of time given by the KPU must be followed by increasing the performance of the candidates in the debate.
"The quality of the debate is not only determined by the debate mechanism prepared by the KPU, but also depends on the candidates to utilize it. If the candidate does not elaborate on his opinion, the KPU cannot stand up and force them to continue talking. Even if they don\'t want to answer questions, that is also OK," said Arief.
Therefore, the KPU hopes that its efforts to increase interaction between the candidates and the public in the next debate are supported by the vice-presidential candidates who will also be present in the third debate.
A researcher for the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Arya Fernandes, said that the presence of moderators and panelists was not maximized in the two previous debates. In fact, they were needed to help provide questions to the candidates so that the substance of the problem can be further explored.
Encouraging questions are needed to revive awkward empty spaces when candidates run out of words to respond to or not optimally use the remaining time effectively. Along with the more active role of moderators and panelists, the duration of time in the exploratory debate segment also needs to be extended.
"Questions need to be explored further. Possibly the duration can be extended from 8 minutes to 15 minutes so that the candidates are \'forced\' to exchange ideas," he said.
The director of the Center for Political Studies (Puskapol) of the University of Indonesia, Aditya Perdana, also encouraged debate participants to be given more opportunities to elaborate on each theme presented.
"The KPU can still maintain the second debate format. However, the two debate participants need to be given more opportunities to elaborate on each theme," he said.
A KPU member, Wahyu Setiawan, said that the KPU has received such inputs. The proposal to extend the duration of the explorative debate will be taken into account in the evaluation meeting.
Technical improvements
Besides evaluating the debate mechanism, technical improvements also need to be carried out. Bawaslu member Fritz Edward Siregar said that the supervisory board had recommended that the number of supporters be reduced and asked the teams from each candidate to better regulate them so as not to disrupt the debate.
However, according to the program director of the National Campaign Team of Jokowi-Ma\'ruf, Aria Bima, the debate between the two candidates took place in a conducive way. Cheers from the support team of each candidate did not disrupt the debate. Therefore, according to him, there is no need for the KPU to limit the number of spectators at the debate.
He proposed that rather than limiting the number of supporters, the narration of the yells of each camp needs to be strictly regulated. For example, the support team may only cheer on their candidate and not shout at the opponent.
Spokesperson of the National Winning Team of Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Uno, Dahnil Anzar Simanjuntak, expressed hope that in the next three debates there will be no need for panelists or question makers to be addressed to the presidential/vice presidential candidates. That, according to him, is expected to make the debate livelier because of the direct interaction of the two pairs.
"The two pairs simply ask each other and debate independently with the guidance of the moderator. This condition is similar to the routine debates conducted by spokespersons and success teams on television," said Dahnil. (AGE/ REK/ SAN)