Make Politics More Rational

KOMPAS/HERU SRI KUMORO

Presidential candidates for the 2019 general election Joko Widodo (second left foreground) and Prabowo Subianto (second right), accompanied by their respective vice-presidential candidates Ma’ruf Amin (far left, foreground) and Sandiaga Uno (far right), share a light moment after participating in the first debate at Bidakara Hotel, Jakarta, Thursday (17/01/2019). The theme of the debate was law, human rights, corruption and terrorism.

The first presidential election debate is done and dusted, with many skeptics believing that it was merely ceremonial.

The public doubted the veracity of the debate when the General Elections Commission (KPU) gave the candidates clues about the questions they had to answer. Doubts are now being raised about the KPU’s neutrality and independence. However, the debate, even though it was not perfect, has given the presidential candidates the opportunity to disclose their vision, mission and ideas.

The KPU must be congratulated for organizing the debate. Both candidate pairs conveyed their ideas and message of unity and peace when it was over. When the moderator invited them to congratulate each other in their closing statements -- and it did not happen -- their body language continued to convey a message of unity and peace.

The debate organizer must not get complacent because four more debates must still be held and the public is hoping that the two pairs will offer new and concrete programs.

In the first debate, an element of newness was introduced by Prabowo Subianto when he said the president should be the chief of law enforcement to overcome Indonesia’s legal problems.

He, however, did not elaborate on his imagined stance. Panelists, who compiled the questions, were not given the opportunity to question him about this.

The first debate -- which centered on law, corruption, human rights and terrorism -- did not offer up any new ideas.

Among them was that the two candidate pairs want to strengthen the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to protect it from various political "attacks" or intimidation.

The discussion on corruption offered nothing new, with the old message of increasing the salaries of judges, prosecutors and police officers being aired again. In reality, the former chief justice of the Constitutional Court, Akil Mochtar, was earning a huge salary when he was arrested by the KPK.

The issue of past human rights violations was not even discussed.

The debates are being conducted to make politics more rational and not emotional. They are meant to be used as tools by the presidential candidates to build new social contracts. The debates are needed to test original ideas and breakthroughs and we hope that they can lead to solutions to solve the nation\'s problems. Therefore, they need to be more robust.