Final Presidential Debate to Have Huge Impact

· 4 minutes read

The final debate, to be held this Saturday, will have a huge impact in convincing voters ahead of the 2019 presidential election. However, hopes remain that both candidates will use the debate to promote national unity.JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The final presidential debate this Saturday (13/4/2019), involving the two presidential candidates and their vice-presidential running mates, will have a huge impact in convincing their supporters and swaying undecided voters. Amid a decreasing percentage of undecided voters, candidates must work harder by presenting concrete plans to the people.

The final presidential debate, held on the last day of public campaigning for the 2019 election, will take place only four days before voting on April 17. The debate’s topics are believed to be important for voters, namely economy and social welfare, finance and investment, and trade and industry.

In a Kompas R&D poll held from April 9-10 and involving 534 respondents in 17 major cities across Indonesia, 31.8 percent of the respondents said the final debate might still make them change their mind as to who to vote for. Meanwhile, 65.2 percent of the respondents said the debate would not change their mind.

Those results show that voter preferences have solidified since January, when 59.9 percent of respondents said in a poll that the debates would not change their mind, while 36.5 percent said they might.

Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) researcher Arya Fernandes said in Jakarta on Friday (12/4) that the electoral influence of the final debate would be higher than that of previous debates. This was because the final debate’s themes, especially economy and social welfare, were directly related to people’s lives.

With respect to the debate’s themes, the Kompas R&D poll shows that 61.42 percent of respondents await the candidates’ explanations on the economy and social welfare. Main issues in these two themes will be job opportunities and the prices of staple goods.

“This debate will be voters’ last reference in making their choices. The gap between the debate and voting day is only four days long. Voters will have a strong memory [about this debate] while they are voting at polling stations,” Arya explained.

More concrete

Previous debates, Arya said, lacked concrete and detailed elaboration on the candidates’ programs. As the final debate is crucial, it is hoped that the candidates will explain their programs more concretely in order to persuade voters.

On labor issues, Labor Institute Indonesia secretary Andy W Sinaga said it was urgent for the government to empower the country’s future labor force and prepare them for Industry 4.0. This is done

by producing competent workers. Issues to address included creating a map of workforce competency to encourage industrial productivity. The government should assess and find out what agency would be best to handle this plan.

Joko Widodo-Ma’ruf Amin national campaign team deputy head Johnny G Plate said that, during the debate, Jokowi and Ma’ruf would expose their new programs, especially Jokowi’s three cards, which including the Cheap Staple Needs Card and the Preemployment Card. These are deemed solutions to the problems of a lack of job opportunities and poverty.

Jokowi and Ma’ruf would also use the final debate to respond to criticism of the economic achievements of Jokowi’s first term. Specifically, Jokowi aims to respond to criticism related to economic growth and foreign debt, as well as explain “breakthrough” plans to fix the economy.

Meanwhile, Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Uno national campaign team debate director Sudirman Said said Prabowo and Sandiaga would offer massive industrial development to end Indonesia’s dependency on imported products. Furthermore, Prabowo and Sandiaga would offer short-term solutions to reduce imports of products like food ingredients.

With respect to foreign workers, Sudirman said the current policy needed fixing. Foreign workers should only work in Indonesia if no Indonesian had their expertise.

National unity

University of Indonesia center of political studies’ director Aditya Perdana said he hoped both candidate pairs would use the final debate to generate national unity. Aditya said the prolonged campaign period had strongly polarized the public.

Among the political elites, differences can be bridged, and unity and peace can easily be restored after the period of confrontation. However, divisions are harder to manage at the grassroots level. With this in mind, the political elites must remind supporters of both candidate pairs to end all divisions after the 2019 election. (AGE/MED/SAN/LKT/EDN)

Editor:

kompascetak