BANDUNG - The survey results from the CiGMark survey agency show that the Governor of West Java, Ridwan Kamil, is a figure who has the potential to give victory if he is promoted as a vice presidential candidate (cawapres) in the 2024 presidential election.
The CEO of CiGMark, Setia Darma, said that in a survey involving 1,200 respondents in 34 provinces, if Ridwan Kamil became Prabowo Subianto's or Ganjar Pranowo's partner, it would certainly be superior to other pairs.
In the simulation conducted by CiGMark, the duet between Prabowo-Kamil as a presidential-vice presidential candidate was able to achieve an electability of 40.6 percent, while the Ganjar-Anies Baswedan pair was still stagnant at 37.9 percent.
Meanwhile, if the simulation of the Pranowo-Kamil pair, this duo was recorded to be able to gain support of 42.7 percent. Outperforming the Prabowo-Baswedan pair which was only 37 percent.
In the same survey, when respondents were given top-of-mind questions about presidential candidates, there were five names that stood out the most, namely Pranowo 14.1 percent, Prabowo Subianto 11.7 percent, Baswedan 9.5 percent, Joko Widodo 4.7 percent and Ridwan Kamil 4.0 percent. Meanwhile, as many as 48.8 percent of respondents do not have a choice.
As for the top of mind vice presidential candidates, the most prominent names are Sandiaga Uno with 7.7 percent, Kamil 6.2 percent, and Baswedan 4.9 percent.
Meanwhile, a political observer from the Indonesian Education University, Karim Suryadi, said that Kamil's capacity as governor of West Java was an undeniable competency capital, even for the presidency.
"So with or without a survey, Ridwan Kamil's contribution to his running mate in the presidential election is easy to read. Apart from capacity, Ridwan Kamil has good popularity and high electability," Suryadi said as quoted by Antara.
He considered that although Ridwan Kamil is not the most favored governor in every survey in terms of popularity, it should not be forgotten that Ridwan Kamil is a governor with low resistance.
"So Ridwan Kamil is the person with the most potential to be sold compared to other governors," he added.
According to him, West Java's success in overcoming the pandemic and encouraging economic recovery is another achievement for Kamil that can be transformed into political capital.
"In my view, let alone the vice president, even for the office of president Ridwan Kamil has the capacity. Unfortunately, Ridwan Kamil does not have a political party, and it is even more unfortunate because the tickets for the presidential candidate have been bought up by political party officials," he said.
The main problem with Ridwan Kamil's candidacy, admitted Karim, was the question of winning tickets held by political parties. If a political party has the ambition to take part in the contestation and force its leadership to advance, the chances of emergence of figures outside the party structure are getting smaller.
"We hope that the presidential election as an arena for national political refreshment is also getting thinner," he said.
On the other hand, he believes that Kamil is predicted to be the candidate for the vice presidential candidate, not because of his inadequate capacity as a presidential candidate, but because of limited access to presidential tickets.
The position of governor itself is the most appropriate "political laboratory" for a figure to run for president. Therefore, it is very reasonable and can be justified if the presidential candidate has experience in handling the affairs of citizens at the provincial level, because what is handled by the president is also the business of the governor.
Commenting on the results of the CigMark survey where Ridwan Kamil is positioned as Prabowo's representative, ahead of the other pairs, with 37.7 percent electability, Suryadi assessed, is the right mix.
"In my view, it is a dangerous political gamble if those with no experience in handling public affairs run as presidential or vice presidential candidates," he said.
"So to put it simply, if a candidate comes from the military he must have experience in occupying the highest office, at least experience handling defense affairs in the national scope. If he comes from civilians, he has experience in handling public affairs at the provincial level," he said.
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