No Mutual Appreciation between Candidates
JAKARTA, KOMPAS – Although they did not verbalize their appreciation, the presidential and vice presidential candidates showed mutual respect during the first debate round. However, the narratives of both candidate pairs lacked fresh ideas.
The first round of the 2019 presidential debate on Thursday evening (1/17/2019) between Joko “Jokowi” Widodo-Ma’ruf Amin and Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Uno, ended without the verbal expression of mutual appreciation, even though the moderators reminded them to include words of appreciation for their opponent in their closing statements.
Nevertheless, the candidates clearly showed a genial relationship throughout the evening, with the pairs shaking hands and embracing one another before the debate round concluded to relax the tense atmosphere.
In terms of their narratives, both candidate pairs seemed to lack fresh ideas throughout the round, with Jokowi and Prabowo relying mainly on their talking points from the presidential debates five years ago.
Jokowi-Ma’ruf offered at least five programs for eradicating corruption, including strict law enforcement, institutional reinforcement for the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), using a system of open recruitment for anticorruption officers to prevent nepotism and to promote synergy between the prosecutors’ office, the KPK and the National Police.
“In principle, recruitment should be based on competence instead of nepotism or financial capabilities. Therefore, the recruitment of bureaucratic personnel must be transparent and simple. The recruitment system for certain public office must be simplified to make the elections cheaper,” said Jokowi.
Prabowo-Sandiaga offered at least three programs to eradicate corruption: institutional reinforcement of the KPK, improving state assets to prevent their misuse by civil servants and increasing civil servants’ salaries, including law enforcement personnel.
“The root of the problem is that civil servants and bureaucrats have insufficient salaries. I will realistically improve the quality of life for civil servants,” said Prabowo.
The ideas are not very different from those Jokowi and Prabowo offered in their first debate round for the 2014 presidential election, themed “Development, Democracy, Clean Government and Rule of Law”. Their respective running mates were Jusuf Kalla and Hatta Rajasa.
No breakthrough ideas
Following the debate, KPK deputy chair Saut Situmorang said that he heard nothing new in either candidate’s ideas, even though law enforcement, especially corruption eradication, required real solutions and commitments beyond campaign promises.
“Both were as usual and did not propose any innovation. Corruption is not just about law, but also about order. Because of the limited time, perhaps they could not properly elaborate on their programs,” he said.
Transparency International Indonesia (TII) secretary-general Dadang Trisasongko said that both candidates were focused on talking about corruption, but were given limited opportunities to further elaborate on their corruption eradication concepts.
“Prabowo and Sandiaga proposed increasing the salaries and benefits of government workers and law enforcement officials. This is one of the solutions for eradicating corruption in Indonesia, especially [cases involving small amounts] due to the perpetrators’ low welfare. However, corruption in Indonesia is caused not only by low welfare. Corruption here also occurs to hoard wealth, such as through accepting illicit money from contractors,” he said.
Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) chair Hariyadi B. Sukamdani said that proper recruitment and monitoring were key to eradicating corruption.
University of Indonesia Center for Political Studies (Puskapol) executive director Aditya Perdana said the candidates talked about typical issues, rendering their speeches unappealing. As regards corruption, for instance, neither Jokowi-Ma’ruf and Prabowo-Sandiaga could answer the question on corruption in political parties.
Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) political research center head Firman Noor and National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) commissioner Choirul Anam both said that neither candidate offered any concrete solutions.
Firman said that the candidates did not appear to respond naturally, possibly because they had received the debate questions ahead of time. In addition, the moderators were mostly passive when they should have asked questions to trigger actual debate.
Both campaign teams denied the shortage of fresh ideas in the first round of the presidential debate.
“I think our candidates delivered many new ideas,” said Prabowo-Sandiaga campaign team debate director Sudirman Said.
Joko Widodo-Ma’ruf Amin campaign team chair Erick Thohir, on the other hand, said that Jokowi and Ma’ruf peppered their statements with real solutions for the people. Jokowi and Ma’ruf would prioritize the continuation of the Jokowi-Kalla administration’s work programs.
Smooth debate
General Elections Commission (KPU) chair Arief BUdiman said that the first debate round ran smoothly in accordance with the KPU’s plan.
“The debate was appealing, as each candidate pair was able to follow with the flow of the debate. They gave good answers and responses. Everything ran relatively smoothly. We will evaluate the debate in more detail,” he said.
The Jokowi-Ma’ruf team’s Abdul Kadir Karding said that the embrace between the candidates indicated the close relationship between the pairs, and that their actions mattered more than words. (REK/IAN/END/MTK/E06/SAN/AGE)