Jokowi vs Prabowo: 1-0

The Joko “Jokowi” Widodo-Jusuf Kalla ticket swept all five segments of the live TV debate against the Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa pair on Monday evening.

Jokowi responded to widespread skepticism of his oratory skills and poor vision with short but firm answers that emphasized his achievements and proposed down-to-earth policies. Kalla not only cited his own proven record as a vice president but also openly touched on one of Prabowo’s most controversial weakness — the human rights question.

Most of Prabowo or Hatta’s remarks and answers were normative and too general. Prabowo repeatedly emphasized nationalistic economic policies, especially on natural resource management, while Hatta failed to come up with any concrete accomplishments during his 10-year Cabinet career under President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Megawati Soekarnoputri.

On democracy, bureaucratic reform and legal certainty, Jokowi answered: “Democracy, according to us, is listening to the people’s voices and realizing [their requests]. Pak JK [Kalla] has settled many conflicts through dialog. I settled problems at Tanah Abang market and Pluit reservoir through dialogs.”

On corruption eradication, Prabowo said that he would increase the salaries of law enforcers, citing as an example that “a chief justice’s salary in the UK exceeded that of its prime minister.”

This first of five public debates was moderated by Zainal Arifin Mochtar, Gadjah Mada University Corruption Studies Center (PUKAT) director. Apart from answering questions from the moderator, the pairs were also given the space to pose questions to their rivals and make their own closing statements.

Answering a question from Kalla on Prabowo’s controversial past, the former son-in-law of Soeharto answered: “I am a former soldier who has done his duty as best as I can. Aside from that, it is up to the judgment of my superiors.

“I am the toughest human-rights defender in the republic.” His tone rose noticeably when Kalla pushed him to elaborate on incidents surrounding the fall of Soeharto in May 1998.



Prabowo, who was dismissed from the Indonesian Military (TNI) following the kidnapping of pro-democracy activists in 1998, was quick to defend himself. He said that as a soldier, he was obliged to ensure the safety of all people and to prevent radical groups, including those who carried bombs, from threatening the safety of innocent people.

“I know where this is going,” Prabowo said to Kalla.

Meanwhile, Prabowo asked Jokowi and Kalla about their opinion of regional expansion and regional elections, the annual budget allocation of which was in the trillions of rupiah.

“If we returned [the regional elections] to the legislative, we could save Rp 13 trillion.”

Jokowi answered by saying that he would maintain the current system while improving its implementation.

“We could do elections in one region at the same time to save money,” he said.

On regional expansion, Jokowi said that he would take a number of aspects into consideration before approving requests to expand regions, such as resources, economic capital and size.

The moderator then pressed the candidates on their commitment to the principle of Bhineka Tunggal Ika (Unity in Diversity).

“There must be no discrimination in legal processes [to remove] the reluctance to [criminalize] leaders while being tough on citizens. In this country of Pancasila, people should not be the subjects of discrimination [because] of their backgrounds,” Hatta answered.

Jokowi cited his decision to maintain a Christian subdistrict head in Jakarta despite strong protest from local Muslims who refused to be led by a non-Muslim.

Prabowo, in order to reflect his commitment to protecting diversity, said that he had supported the nomination of a Christian of Chinese descent — Gerindra member and acting Jakarta governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama — as Jokowi’s running mate in the Jakarta gubernatorial election in the face of protest from some Muslim groups.

“As the leader of Gerindra, it was I that strongly defend [Ahok] amid protest suggesting it was unsuitable for a minority to become deputy governor,” he said. This was Prabowo’s strongest and most convincing statement of the debate.
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