Called Like Smart Cermat, Does The Debate Of Presidential Candidates - Candidates Need To Be Changed?

Presidential Candidate number one Anies Baswedan put forward his ideas in the third presidential candidate debate held by the General Elections Commission (KPU) at Istora Senayan, Sunday (7/1/2024). (VOI/Bambang E Ros)

JAKARTA I think there will be many who are disappointed. So the debate does need to be for better information, there are signs, so it's alive," said President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) on the sidelines of a working visit in Serang, Banten, Monday (8/1/2023).

This comment was expressed by Jokowi after the debate of the three presidential candidates (candidates) organized by the General Elections Commission (KPU) at Istora Senayan, Sunday (7/1/2023). In the third debate, the theme raised was defense, security, international relations, globalization, geopoliticals, and foreign politics. Prabowo Subianto, who was championed to perform in this third debate, was beyond expectations that he could not even bring out his best potential.

On several occasions the number two presidential candidate received attacks from two of his opponents, Anies Baswedan and Ganjar Pranowo, which made Prabowo not move. After the debate, many people considered that the attacks launched by Anies and Ganjar were private.

And, Jokowi said attacking each other in the implementation of the debate was not a problem as long as the Presidential Candidate attacked the policy, not personally attacking with the motive of dropping it.

"At least it's okay to attack each other, but the policies, policies, visions who are attacked, are not to drop each other with personal motives. I don't think it's good and not educating," he said.

The debate between the presidential and vice presidential candidates has been a polemic since before the debate began. Even last year, news emerged that the vice presidential debate was abolished. This news had caused boisterous enthusiasm among the public, which led to the assumption that the negligence of the vice presidential debate was to protect one of the partners.

But the KPU confirmed that it was a hoax. The KPU ensured that the 2024 presidential candidate debate format would be held five times, with details of three presidential candidates and two presidential debates. Thus, there is no joint debate between the presidential and vice presidential candidates in this election.

This is indeed different from the previous two elections. In 2014, for example, the debate between the presidential and vice presidential candidates was held twice each and the joint debate once. Meanwhile, in 2019, there were two presidential debates, one vice presidential debate, and two joint debates.

When the debate took place, the polemics were unavoidable. Attacking has occurred since the first debate in early December 2023. After going through three series of debates, many people think that the format of the presidential candidate in Indonesia is actually more like being smart. In addition, the questions raised by the contestants were also considered tendentious, attacking personally, not in the form of trap questions, as did Gibran Rakabuming Raka by asking about SGIE (State of Global Islamic Economy) to Muhaimin Iskandar in the Cawapres debate, December 22, 2023.

Then in the latest debate, Prabowo was unable to answer his opponent's questions several times. He argued that he could not disclose the Ministry of Defense data to the public, apart from being confidential because of the limited time given.

This debate format has also attracted the attention of many parties, one of which is from political observer Pangi Syarwi Chaniago. According to him, three debate participants should be allowed to fight openly without any time limit as happened in the debate in Indonesia.

"The debate will be classy is debate with open combat, free combat. It means let the three of them argue, want to ask, want to answer, just give 10 minutes one theme," said the Executive Director of the Voxpol Center Research and Consulting.

"Let them beat the three of them, can singregate each other, compete with data, can be outspoken, attack ideas or thoughts as long as they don't attack personally," said Pangi.

The pressure for the KPU to change the format has indeed become controversial, especially when the one who said it was Jokowi, whose eldest son himself fought in it. After all, the Chairman of the KPU Hasyim Asy'ari emphasized that his party would not change the debate format for the presidential and vice presidential candidates for the 2024 election, including segments and durations of the debate, because this has been appreciated by the entire success team of candidate pairs participating in the presidential election.

"So, if it becomes a pattern, it's standard, yes, we follow it. If there is a change, it will definitely raise the next question, why has the pattern changed?" Hasyim said in Jakarta, quoting Antara.

The KPU's insistence on not changing the debate format was regretted by Pangi. According to him, the debate on presidential candidates does not need to be guided by moderators so that they can give freedom to presidential candidates to present their arguments, as long as they do not personalize.

"There is no need to guide the moderator, there is no need to say that there is a time to run out. This is what the KPU needs to change, but I see that the KPU insists on not having the intention to change that. Keep defending the wrong one, but tomorrow it will bring the masses, the cheers team that interfere with the debate.

For information, in the presidential debate in the United States, presidential candidates are allowed to refute other presidential candidates without interruption from the moderator. Meanwhile in Singapore, the presidential candidate debate was held round table without the presence of supporters. Thus, the presidential candidates sit together to face each other at the round table and without any interference from their respective supporters.

After the third debate, Anies Baswedan's name received a positive response on social media X. The presidential candidate from the Change Coalition is claimed to have succeeded in mastering the third debate through a series of statements. This was proven by mentioning netizens to the presidential candidates after the debate was over. Drone Emprit noted that Anies Baswedan was called 429,000 times by netizens, while Prabowo Subianto was 396,000, and Ganjar Pranowo 329,000.

This is inversely proportional to the electability of the three. In several surveys, the Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka couple is often in first place, outperforming the pair Ganjar Pranowo-Mahfud MD and Anies Baswedan-Muhaimin Iskandar, who often also get a drop in the presidential candidate electability survey.

However, the Executive Director of the Nusantara Institute PolCom SRC (Politocial Communication Studies and Research Center) Andriadi Achmad emphasized that there were no significant changes related to the electability of the presidential candidate after the debate.

"After the debate, in the release of several media, there were no significant changes, even stagnant regarding the electability of the candidate pair - vice presidential candidate," Andriadi told VOI.

Since the first debate was held, the actions of the presidential candidates on stage have always caught the public's attention. Not only about the ideas that were conveyed, but also the style of clothing, the games, to the diction they expressed.

The presidential and vice presidential candidates are expected to be able to issue their best potential in the debate held by the KPU. The reason is, the debate on the presidential and vice presidential candidates is not only an event to put forward superior ideas and programs, but is also believed to be a moment to attract the votes of prospective voters, especially those who are still confused about choosing a choice or known as the voting voters.