Voters Await Candidates’ Detailed Economic Programs

KOMPAS/PRADIPTA PANDU

Presidential candidates Joko Widodo (left) and Prabowo Subianto (right) walk hand in hand at a pledge for a peaceful campaign ahead of the 2019 election that was held at the National Monument (Monas) in Central Jakarta on Sunday, Sept. 23. The presidential candidates hope to receive support from volunteers at a time when coalition parties also have to concentrate on preparations for the legislative election.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS -- Voters deem presidential candidates’ economic improvement plans to be very important and both candidate pairs must articulate them to the public during the campaign period.

The general public deems it important that presidential and vice-presidential candidates should talk about their economic programs in the election campaign period, which began on Sept. 23. With respect to this, both candidate pairs must use the remaining time to articulate their economic plans, how they can be measured and how the public will benefit from them.

A survey by Kompas Research and Development involving 501 respondents in 16 major cities across Indonesia on Jan. 3 and 4 found that only 40.32 percent of respondents were familiar with the vision, mission and programs of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and his running mate, Ma’ruf Amin. Meanwhile, only 30.54 percent were familiar with the programs of their opponents, Prabowo Subianto and Sandiaga Uno.

Of the respondents familiar with Jokowi and Ma’ruf’s programs, 24.55 percent said that infrastructure development should be the pair\'s top priority, followed by economic improvement and human development. Meanwhile, of those familiar with Prabowo and Sandiaga’s programs, 18.56 percent said economic improvement was the pair’s most interesting program, followed by job creation.

This is congruent with the results of a previous Kompas poll on the nation’s most pressing problems, which involved 1,200 respondents in 34 provinces across Indonesia, that was held from Sept. 24 to Oct. 5 last year. Some 26.5 percent of respondents cited the economy, followed by poverty (11.4 percent), corruption (7.1 percent) and job creation and unemployment (6.8 percent).

Airlangga University professor of political science Ramlan Surbakti said in Surabaya on Monday both candidate pairs should disseminate detailed information to help voters understand their programs, such as on economic improvement.

“Candidate pairs must move beyond superficiality when talking about their plans, such as the length of roads or the number of bridges that they will build. The public also needs to know about the projects’ impact in the long run, including whether or not such infrastructure projects will boost the economy and assist human and logistic transportation.

“The length of roads and number of bridges are merely outputs. What the public wants to know is the outcomes of such projects, namely the impact that they can feel,” Ramlan said.

Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) political researcher Syarif Hidayat said it was time for the political elite to offer detailed programs and rely less on the personality cult of presidential and vice-presidential candidates.

“In the short term, selling the candidates’ personality may have a significant influence in a parochial society. However, in order to build our democracy, we need to rely less on personalities. Emphasis must be put on programs in choosing our leaders,” he added.

Contestation of details

Prabowo-Sandiaga national campaign team spokesman Ferry Juliantono said the team would focus its campaign on the pair’s work programs, which included job creation and more affordable prices for basic needs, in the remaining three months of the campaign period. The team will also offer programmatic narratives to shift public perception on infrastructure development. Ferry added that the Jokowi administration’s infrastructure projects had no direct impact on the public as it would only be felt in the long run.

Ferry said Prabowo and Sandiaga would prioritize building infrastructure that directly supported the public’s production activities. This includes building irrigation systems in farming regions and building facilities to support fishery distribution in fishing regions.

“For us, these types of infrastructure support people’s production and they will see the benefits immediately. People do not need physical infrastructure that will only lead to new development hubs.”

Jokowi-Ma’ruf national campaign team deputy chairperson Arsul Sani said the team would intensify public discussions to inform the public about the pair’s detailed vision and mission, adding that the team might also use daily press conferences at its campaign center to routinely disseminate information on the pair’s vision, mission and work programs.

Arsul said the economy and infrastructure were among the topics discussed in these activities. Other than to explain Jokowi and Ma’ruf’s work programs, the press conferences will also be used to answer questions and hand out information about Jokowi’s achievements in his first term. (SAN/REK/AGE)