Management Of The Third Emotions Of The Vice President During Debate According To Micro Expression Experts

Muhaimin Iskandar, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, and Mahfud MD join hands after the vice presidential debate at the Jakarta Convention Center, Friday (22/12/2023). (Between/Muhammad Adimaja)

JAKARTA - Microexpression expert Kirdi Putra revealed the meaning behind the scarf worn by vice presidential candidate (Cawapres) Muhaimin Iskandar (Cak Imin) to the findings of emotional expressions of Gibran Rakabuming Raka and Mahfud MD in the second debate of the 2024 Presidential Election (Pilpres), which was held on Friday (22/12) night.

Kirdi when contacted by Antara, Friday (22/12) night, said Cawapres number 1 Cak Imin that night wore a deliberate batik scarf to introduce his new public jargon, namely selepet.

"He realized that the game and jargon were so much needed that they seemed to be trying to give a new jargon. That's why he was wearing a scarf last night," said Kirdi.

Kirdi assessed that the game and jargon were very important in the contestation of the election of the head of state, because these small-looking things actually had a big impact on public decisions in choosing, apart from making candidate pairs easy to remember. In addition, Kirdi also found something else from Cawapres number 2, Gibran, when appearing at the hot moment. According to him, Gibran was seen showing anger and stress, although he was still able to convey the conversation smoothly.

I can see a lot of Gibran's emotional leaks, the most dominant anger and stress. If you look at the wrinkles in his forehead which amounted to above 50 percent, and when finished talking, the wrinkles immediately disappeared and immediately returned to a relieved smile," Kirdi explained.

At the time of the vice presidential debate, Gibran was also caught on camera again inviting his support team to cheer through his body gestures, even though previously, the Indonesian KPU had reprimanded Gibran for taking the same action while accompanying Prabowo Subianto in the presidential candidate's inaugural debate, Tuesday (12/12).

Kirdi said the action could indicate three possibilities, first, Gibran felt the need for support due to nervousness. The second possibility, Kirdi considered, the action was an effort to show power and strength with a large number of supporters on site, and the third is the possibility that he would like to have a deterrent effect on the opponent.

Meanwhile, the Vice Presidential Candidate number 3 Mohammad Mahfud MD, according to Kirdi, is quite good at controlling emotional expressions among other vice presidential candidates.

"In my opinion, Mr. Mahfud, this mastery of expression, his emotions are good, this needs praise, when during the previous presidential candidate debate I once said that the one who can control the most expression of emotions, not controlling emotions, yes, it is Mr. Anies, but the second best thing is Mr. Mahfud," said Kirdi.

Overall, Mahfud was also able to manage his emotions well, although several times he had seen an emotional leak that was exposed.

Nervous at the beginning of the debate, causing Mahfud MD not to stand up several times and shake his body, as Kirdi said.

"In my opinion, Mr. Mahfud's emotional management is good, although if we look at the first segment he shakes his body a lot to the right and left while talking, it's nervous, the rest he only had time to feel uncomfortable when dealing with Cak Imin, seen when he scratched his nose a little," Kirdi explained.