Indonesia Presidential Debate 2019

[Indos]

First Indonesian presidential debate between Jokowi and Prabowo kicks off

Indonesia's presidential candidate Joko Widodo (left) speaks beside his vice-presidential candidate Ma'ruf Amin during a televised debate with his opponents Prabowo Subianto and his vice- presidential candidate Sandiaga Uno in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Jan 17, 2019.PHOTO: REUTERS
PUBLISHED
JAN 18, 2019, 12:13 AM SGT

Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja
Indonesia Correspondent

JAKARTA - Indonesian President Joko Widodo and his challenger Prabowo Subianto on Thursday (Jan 17) faced off in a live debate ahead of the April 17 presidential election, watched by tens of millions of people on television, radio and through livestreams on the Internet.

They attacked each other's record in the first of five live debates, with both men keen to capture the big pool of swing voters. The debate was broadcast live by 18 television and radio stations.

The topics covered were on the hot-button issues of corruption, terrorism, human rights and the law.

Mr Prabowo, 67, a retired army general, is running with businessman-turned-politician Sandiaga Uno, 49, who last year left his post as Jakarta deputy governor after serving less than a year.

They are the only rivals in a two-way race in the April presidential poll against Mr Joko, 57, and running mate Ma'ruf Amin, 75, a former leader of the 80 million-strong Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) Islamic organisation.

Both Dr Ma'ruf and Mr Sandiaga, standing beside the presidential candidates, chipped in with some of the answers.

Thursday's debate was held as the latest surveys by six pollsters, conducted between November and January, revealed that should the polls be held during those periods, the Joko-Ma'ruf pair would garner between 47.7 per cent and 54.9 per cent of the votes.

On the other hand, the Prabowo-Sandiaga pair would get between 30.6 per cent and 35.5 per cent.

But there is also a big chunk of undecided voters - between 10.6 per cent and 16.8 per cent - that is targeted by both sides.

The live debates allow the candidates to deliver their message to the nearly 193 million voters in the world's largest archipelago of 17,000 islands.

Watch out for presidential debate on foreign policy: Jakarta Post columnist[/paste:font]
Mr Joko is backed by the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party - Struggle (PDI-P) and eight other parties.

These include the country's oldest Golkar party and two Islam-leaning factions, United Development Party (PPP) and National Awakening Party (PKB).

Mr Prabowo is running on the ticket of his party Gerindra and two Islam-leaning parties, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and National Mandate Party (PAN), along with former-president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's nationalist Democratic Party.

Some of the issues debated cut deep into what a section of Indonesians feel.

Mr Prabowo attacked Mr Joko for what he claimed was a discriminatory approach in enforcing the law, which is biased against the poor.

"You have ruled more than four years. People have experienced being discriminated against. You are the chief law enforcement officer. You must not discriminate based on religion, ethnics, or anything," Mr Prabowo said.

He also argued that Indonesia needs to ensure state apparatus with enormous legal authority like judges and policemen must be well paid so they have a good quality of life and could resist bribes.

Mr Joko replied that the accusations about the law was baseless as the country operates on standard legal procedure and follows due process.

"Don't make baseless accusations. If anyone has evidence, they can report to the law enforcement officers," Mr Joko said.

The two candidates also spoke on the issue of corruption in politics and the civil service.

However, the police probe into the 2017 attack on anti-graft investigator Novel Baswedan did not feature in the debate even though Mr Joko had said on Wednesday that he would give an update on it.

Failure to solve the case remains a blemish on the President's record against corruption, and many had hoped he would elaborate on the police investigations during the debate last night.

https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/s...l-debate-between-jokowi-and-prabowo-kicks-off

 

[Indos]

Full Debate

 

[Nilgiri]

How has Jokowi fared in his tenure opinion wise?

Any opinion polls?

 

[Yankee-stani]

Holy s...it Indonesian is very simmliar to Tagalog or Malay

 

[Nilgiri]

Holy s...it Indonesian is very simmliar to Tagalog or Malay

Well Indonesian (i.e jakarta prestige dialect) and Malay are pretty much same language (Bahasa)...just few registers vary.

Tagalog is quite different, but same family (austronesian).

 

[Yankee-stani]

Well Indonesian (i.e jakarta prestige dialect) and Malay are pretty much same language (Bahasa)...just few registers vary.

Tagalog is quite different, but same family (austronesian).

I dont understand why Malaysia, Indonesia and Phillippines dont form a Union or sorts like the GCC yeah they are part of ASEAN but ASEAN is East Asian dominant group again just suggesting I dont really follow South East Asia as much not to offend anyone but welcoming understanding of the region can be apprciated

 

[Nilgiri]

I dont understand why Malaysia, Indonesia and Phillippines dont form a Union or sorts like the GCC yeah they are part of ASEAN but ASEAN is East Asian dominant group again just suggesting I dont really follow South East Asia as much not to offend anyone but welcoming understanding of the region can be apprciated

Long complicated story in forming the separate identities. PH for example is mostly christian (unlike Indonesia and Malaysia which are islamic culture predominant).

As for Malaysia and Indonesia, well Indonesia itself is somewhat of a confederation to begin with (javanese, sumatran, balinese, sulawesi, mollucan, timorese, papuan and many many more)....whereas Malaysia is more unitary (as far as the malays go there) and also the ethnic minorities (Chinese and Indian) make it more of a plurality given its much smaller population compared to Indonesia....and also combine it with its British colonial history as opposed to the Dutch one for Indonesia (Dutch East Indies).

This is why forceful integration of Sabah and Sarawak into Indonesia (with aim to get peninsular Malaysia into the confederation eventually too) was resisted by Malaysia with British/commonwealth assistance (can read up on konfrontasi).

Ever since the overall atmosphere has been to get development going and economic cooperation on better, productive terms....and just respect the political differences and sovereignty etc.

I don't really see ASEAN as East Asia dominant....Indonesia for example has a massive population (I think almost as much as the other members combined)....its is quite the behemoth in size in the region. In fact Indonesia nearly has same population as USA.

 

[Nike]

How has Jokowi fared in his tenure opinion wise?

Any opinion polls?

So so, neither too good nor bad enough, well at least since Megawati era we are experiencing more stable political environment and not much political mess at National level. Yudhoyono era is quite stable and not much differences from the current ones

 

[Indos]

How has Jokowi fared in his tenure opinion wise?

Any opinion polls?

I can say that Jokowi main economic strategy to pour money for infrastructure and villages are quite successful. His administration is also much cleaner than previous administration thats why I see that majority people support him. According to credible opinion pools he got around 45-50 percent support and Prabowo around 35 % support.

 

[trishna_amṛta]

Well Indonesian (i.e jakarta prestige dialect) and Malay are pretty much same language (Bahasa)...just few registers vary.

No it isn't. In fact is so different to the point I unable to speak Malay despite the fact I spoke Indonesia as my mother tongue. Whenever I'm interacting with Malaysian (including whenever I happen to be in Malaysia) I speak either Indonesia or English

I dont understand why Malaysia, Indonesia and Phillippines dont form a Union or sorts like the GCC yeah they are part of ASEAN but ASEAN is East Asian dominant group again just suggesting I dont really follow South East Asia as much not to offend anyone but welcoming understanding of the region can be apprciated

We don't form union for the same reason India, Pakistan, Bangladesh doesn't form a union.

South East Asia is NOT East Asia nor South Asia. Different culture, languages, custom, etc.

 

[Nilgiri]

No it isn't. In fact is so different to the point I unable to speak Malay despite the fact I spoke Indonesia as my mother tongue. Whenever I'm interacting with Malaysian (including whenever I happen to be in Malaysia) I speak either Indonesia or English.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_language

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malay_language

Like there is variation of course...so it will depend from person to person the mutual intelligibility they have with a Malaysian person. But it is agreed upon (by language experts) its more or less the same language overall.

 

[Boss Dragun]

I dont understand why Malaysia, Indonesia and Phillippines dont form a Union or sorts like the GCC yeah they are part of ASEAN but ASEAN is East Asian dominant group again just suggesting I dont really follow South East Asia as much not to offend anyone but welcoming understanding of the region can be apprciated

I'd like to form one race union country (Austronesian). But then how would you manage countries far away from Madagascar to Indonesia to Hawaii to marshall island/micronesia and to new Zealand (the Maori are Austronesian) as one. Philippine could be one of better candidate to form union until the Spanish came and slaughter force their religion into once an another Muslim kingdom in SEA (king sulayman of manila was a muslim). Forget about Malaysia. We tried to unite them back to us and they responded with betrayal.

 

[Indos]

Second Debate

 

[Indos]

Indonesia election: Jokowi's running mate Ma'ruf holds his own in vice-presidential debate with Prabowo's Sandiaga

JAKARTA - All eyes were on cleric Ma'ruf Amin on Sunday night (March 17), after his lacklustre showing at the first presidential debate in January.

Expectations were that the 76-year-old running mate of incumbent Joko Widodo would be overshadowed by former businessman Sandiaga Uno, the uber popular vice-presidential pick of presidential hopeful Prabowo Subianto.

But at Sunday's showdown - the first and only contest between the vice-presidential picks alone - Dr Ma'ruf proved to be a man on a mission to redeem himself.

Compared with the inaugural debate on Jan 17, which at times saw jibes and tense back-and-forths between Mr Joko and Mr Prabowo, the third of five debates in the run-up to the April 17 polls was a cordial contest between the two vice-presidential picks. And this time around, Dr Ma'ruf did not fade into the background as he did in the first debate, when he chose to let Mr Joko do the heavy lifting.

He had a slow start, but steadily gained momentum, keeping up with Mr Sandiaga, 49, as the two men took turns to lay out their camps' visions and plans in areas ranging from health and education to social affairs and employment.

A hot topic was the deficit of the Healthcare and Social Security Agency that runs the national health insurance scheme introduced by Mr Joko shortly after he became president.



In 2018, the agency recorded a 16.5 trillion rupiah (S$1.56 billion) budget deficit that was blamed on low premiums. Dr Ma'ruf promised the scheme - which covers 215 million people, the most covered by such a scheme in the world - would continue, though he fell short on detailing possible solutions.

Mr Sandiaga promised that he and Mr Prabowo would, if elected, find a solution in their first 200 days.
"We should not point fingers, but we have to fix the problem," he said. "We will bring in the best actuaries from Hong Kong, the best of our nation."

As expected, Mr Sandiaga, a vocal champion for entrepreneurship, spoke passionately about research and innovation, start-ups, and the burgeoning creative economy.

And on these newfangled issues, Dr Ma'ruf - who throughout the debate trotted out Arabic phrases to applause from his supporters - held his own, outlining his ticket's plans to consolidate research funds.

"We will maximise a national research plan, to make our research more effective," he said. "We will provide funds for research, art and education. With that, we believe research can contribute to advancing this nation."

And Dr Ma'ruf came alive when responding to a question on developing and promoting Indonesian culture, speaking animatedly about hopes to raise the country's profile in the global cultural scene.

"We will hold big international festivals... We will build an Opera (House) like the one in Sydney to showcase our culture," he said.

Stunting - a perennial problem in Indonesia - also got an airing, as Mr Sandiaga, citing his own wife's struggle to feed their youngest child, who she had at the age of 42, spoke about his camp's plan to get people to donate items such as milk.

In the face of anxieties among local workers over job competition, Mr Sandiaga - who said only foreign workers who can speak Indonesian should be employed - asked about the foreign workforce. Dr Ma'ruf maintained that it was under control, claiming that foreigners made up just 0.01 per cent of the workforce. "Foreign workers are only allowed to take jobs that locals can't do," he said. "That will also allow for the transfer of technology."

Both teams have plans to beef up job opportunities, and on Sunday stressed the need for "link and match programmes" between companies and schools, and training for jobseekers.

https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/s...presidential-debate?&utm_source=facebook&utm_

 

[Indos]

Third Debate (Vice President)