"Indonesia President Candidates Debate""Megawati vs SBY vs Kalla"
The third session of the presidential/vice presidential debates saw the presidential candidates engage in a livelier debate compared to the first debate on June 18. The following are the assessments of observers who followed the broadcast of the event. Political analyst J. Kristiadi from the Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS) said Jusuf Kalla was the star of the presidential debates last night. "Kalla was eventually brave enough to attack SBY. His allusions towards SBY were solid, and at the same time also entertaining." Kristiadi said he was a little surprised that Kalla, despite still serving as Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's deputy, revealed some of SBY's "weaknesses". "Kalla's answers showed he had mastered all of the questions, while SBY's showed he only understood the issues," he explained. Kristiadi said Yudhoyono understanding the issues was normal since he was the incumbent. "It turned out that Kalla came out better than him." Kristiadi said Megawati Soekarnoputri's performance was better than the previous debate, "but still worse than the two others". "Some of her answers were actually not answering the questions." Kristiadi's grading was different than the one he had made for the first debate. He upgraded Kalla's grade from "Satisfactory Plus" to "Excellent", SBY got "Very Good" (previously "Good") and Megawati got "Satisfactory" (previously "Satisfactory Minus"). Aleksius Jemadu, acting dean at the School of Social and Political Sciences at the Pelita Harapan University in Karawaci, Banten, said it was evident SBY started from an assumption that Indonesia's economy today is already on the right track. "He seems to be proud of the fact that Indonesia has managed to have a positive economic growth in the midst of a global financial crisis. "Therefore, the key to alleviate unemployment and poverty is to achieve economic growth while at the same time introducing policies that will guarantee more equal distribution of economic resources." Aleksius said it was certain Yudhoyono showed the audience that he was knowledgeable through the details of his economic policies. "The only problem was that as the incumbent he did not really tell us about any breakthrough in his economic policies. "In fact, the public expects more than just the continuation of what he has done so far." Aleksius gave SBY 4 out of 5. Meanwhile, Kalla was aware of the fact he had to offer something different from SBY. "With his unique style, he managed to tell us the distinctiveness of not only the substance of his economic policies but also how to achieve his economic goals," Aleksius said. "The more Kalla succeeds in convincing the public that he can do a lot more than the current economic policies, the more he will get sympathy from the people, especially in the urban areas." Aleksius noted it was Kalla who took the initiative to insert good humor in his presentation. "I believe he got a lot of public sympathy because of his effective performance." Kalla received 4.5 from Aleksius. Like Kalla, Megawati had to deal with the imperative of coming up with distinctive economic policies in order to convince the public she had the capacity to alleviate unemployment and poverty. Unfortunately, Megawati only touched the surface of complicated issues. She would have been more persuasive with her concept of people-oriented economy had she managed to show the mistakes of the current economic policies and how to overcome them," Aleksius said. Megawati was awarded 3. Usman Hamid, coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) said the three hopefuls failed to touch the root problems of poverty regarding land ownership status. "The three hopefuls have same opinions that farmers and laborers should be the main target in resolving poverty and unemployment problems, which is also good for the human rights protection, but they give no solution on the long-standing issue of agrarian reform." He said the candidates did not offer solutions on how to protect rights on land ownership, which were prone to human right violations. "Another weakness is none of the candidate talked about poverty reduction in disadvantaged areas like Papua and Aceh. Has special autonomy status improved people's welfare in these areas?" Usman awarded Kalla 4 out of 5 followed by Yudhoyono with 3 and Megawati with 3 minus. "Kalla performed far better than in the previous debate and seems to have mastered the problems raised in the debate. "Yudhoyono still gives normative answers although he keeps being honest during the debate." Usman said Megawati had a good performance only in the beginning of debate but her performance continued to drop showing her limited understanding of key issues. Ignatius Haryanto, executive director of the Institute for Press and Development Studies, also agreed Kalla shined the brightest. "Kalla was able to concretely elaborate his ideas of solutions on resolving poverty in the country. Megawati went back over and over again to the past and failed to comprehensively describe her future plans. "SBY performed quite well in terms of elaborating concrete ideas, but unlike Kalla, who dynamically walked around, SBY just stood straight up behind the microphone." Ignatius then said that the debate was the best so far. "The debate was *not bad'. Each candidate began to disagree with each other," he said. "They now have the guts to say *I'm different, these are my concepts' and so on." However, Ignatius also acknowledged that the candidates could have better elaborated certain issues. "For example, all of them talked about protecting domestic products. However, they did not explain that Indonesia is part of the World Trade Organization *WTO*, whose policy is anti-protectionism." On a five-star scale, Ignatius gives both Yudhoyono and Megawati three stars while Kalla received four. Achmad Sukarsono, founding president of the English Debate Society at the University of Indonesia, said he expected the candidates had learned from criticism over their dull first debate. "I was half wrong. They started poorly but the tempo later picked up when maverick Kalla broke the ice. "The candidates' opening statements failed to excite, especially Megawati's." Achmad said Megawati's campaign ads have been very critical of Yudhoyono's economic policies and her camp have labeled the incumbent a neoliberal lackey but Megawati failed to convey that aggression in the debate. "She gave a wooden performance and some good initiatives, like rural revitalization, but lacked punch to win points." Achmad said Kalla's speech still lacked structure but his confidence in spitting out unusually high targets, like 8 percent growth per year, amid this global crisis at least was provocative. Yudhoyono came out confident and delivered a very structured 7-minute economic program for the next five years. "He was able to defend his pro-poor programs like BLT, PNPM and KUR and trumpet Indonesia's success as one of the best performing countries during the global crisis," Achmad said. "He could have hit the nail on the head if he had elaborated those policies using more communicative language and not through a list of acronyms." Achmad thought it would be another easy SBY domination until Kalla found his stride. "Kalla suddenly became flowing when he decided to be the first candidate to step away from the podium, and interact while speaking. The shape of his speech was still sketchy but he suddenly began spitting out witty statements that changed the mood of the debate. He swiped at SBY's Indofood-sponsored ad that he said encouraged importing foreign wheat. He attacked the central bank, which Yudhoyono's running mate Boediono previously led, saying it preferred to sit on money rather than spend it for the good of the people." Kalla also revealed how he didn't like some energy policies during cabinet meetings, which clearly irked Yudhoyono. Kalla also clearly disagreed with Megawati's proposal to revise the new investment laws by stating it was the labor law that was at fault. Achmad said Yudhoyono still had the best content as he was able to show that in his administration foreign debts went down while funds from within the country like government bonds and taxes have been able to support state finance. "However, Kalla's witty quips revealed that the incumbent was also thin-skinned and could be quickly irritated. SBY tried to defend Boediono and his ad in an impatient manner, rocking his own measured style."
Author: The Jakarta Pos
