Keseleo Lidah Makes Gibran Branding Tarnished

Gibran Rakabuming. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA The incident of Gibran Rakabuming Raka's tongue sprain that mistakenly mentions folic acid to sulfate acid is considered to tarnish Prabowo Subianto's branding companion.

According to UNS political communication expert Andre Noevi Rahmanto, a tongue sprain plus Gibran's absence from dialogues on vice presidents held by various institutions and academics implies several possibilities.

In my opinion, there are two possibilities. First, he is afraid of debate, secondly, he deliberately had a strategy like that, branding," he said, Sunday, December 10.

He explained that the decision not to participate in dialogue was a natural thing, if according to Gibran it was a weakness he had. Branding Gibran as someone who doesn't like debate can also be one of the strategies that might be used to attract supporting votes.

"Why is branding like that, because there are gaps in some people or voters who don't like debate either. So some may hope to see the debate of all candidates to convey their ideas, but many of the millions of voters of the hundreds of millions of voters don't really like debate, so they take that segment," explained Andre.

However, if it becomes a branding strategy, it could be a problem that can be used to weaken the Gibran-Prabowo pair. Therefore, Gibran must be more careful and not only consider the election as an arena to seek victory.

Whereas on the other hand, the vice presidential debate should actually be a space for Gibran or the other two vice presidential candidates to show their ideas or aspirations to prospective voters. This is because the public will be able to assess the vice presidential candidates through these debates.

Andre also assessed that a tongue sprain, the pronunciation of folic acid to sulfate acid, was a fatal mistake that could tarnish Gibran's branding and make prospective voters lose interest in choosing the Prabowo-Gibran pair.

He revealed, there are three factors determining the success of a public figure, namely having high credibility, being able to touch the emotional and rational side of the audience. "If he is often wrong, it means his credibility goes down. What else do people don't believe, fear, I think it's wrong again," he added.

Andre emphasized that the mistake of pronunciation would be fatal if a leader, who had a big influence in people's lives. Therefore, what the presidential and vice presidential candidates have shown during this campaign should be able to show more feasibility to become a leader.

"Indeed competing for the election, but what Gibran shows should be more than just looking for a win. Gibran must think ahead far for the people of Indonesia," concluded Andre.