Prabowo Defensive During The Pamungkas Debate, Starting To Disconfidence?

PDIP Secretary General Hasto Kristiyanto (DOK VOI/Rizky AP)

JAKARTA - Secretary General of the PDI-P (PDIP), Hasto Kristiyanto assessed that the number two presidential candidate (candidate), Prabowo Subianto, seemed to only survive during the fifth debate held by the General Elections Commission (KPU), Sunday, February 4. Different performances were actually displayed by Ganjar Pranowo and Anies Baswedan who seemed to have more control over all themes, namely, social welfare, culture, education, information technology, health, employment, human resources, and inclusion. "There, Mr. Ganjar Pranowo and Mr. Anies do have similarities because they have a basis, an experience base as a governor who has been in a lot of contact with people's problems," said Hasto to reporters at the PDIP DPP, Jakarta, Monday, February 5. "Well, for that, on the other hand, Pak Prabowo is because of his experience in defense, yes, only defense, defense, and defense," he continued. In addition, PDIP politician Aryo Seno Bagaskoro assessed that Prabowo's performance shows how good his physical condition is after undergoing a series of activities in the 2024 Presidential Election (Pilpres) contestation. "Last night, we could see once that physically, in terms of appearance he looked very tired, so that in many statements he conveyed, he was very out of character, outside of his usual character," he said. "If the public has arrested him all this time in the forums and in the previous presidential candidate debate, Pak Prabowo appears so temperamental, easily provoked, then the public captures there is arrogance there, last night Pak Prabowo looked exhausted," continued Seno. The fatigue activity shown by Prabowo is believed to be not part of a communication strategy to face the final debate. Because, if you look at all the statements submitted by the presidential candidate number two, it often does not match the debate theme "From there, we saw the points conveyed by Pak Prabowo, often the points that are far from the people's problems. Even though last night's debate was a debate about the affairs of the people's stomach, debate about the future of the people, debate about welfare. But what Pak Prabowo conveyed repeatedly, the point is to talk, for example, a narrative of unity, about the narrative of how elites can unite," said Seno.

In fact, based on the results of his analysis, Seno said that Prabowo began not to be confident in the support of the authorities. This allegation is because the presidential candidate number two only mentions Jokowi's name once even though he often mentions the names of the previous presidents. "We caught this as part of Pak Prabowo starting to be insecure with such strong support from power, it turns out that today at various points of grand campaign, it turns out that we catch on social media that is often quiet," said Seno.