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strong>June 10, p1

The Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo-Jusuf Kalla ticket swept all five segments of the live TV debate against the Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa pair on Monday evening.

Jokowi responded to widespread skepticism of his oratory skills and poor vision with short but firm answers that emphasized his achievements and proposed down-to-earth policies.

Kalla not only cited his own proven record as a vice president but also openly touched on one of Prabowo'€™s most controversial weaknesses '€” the human rights question.

Prabowo repeatedly emphasized nationalistic economic policies, especially on natural resource management, while Hatta failed to come up with any concrete accomplishments during his 10-year Cabinet career under President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and former president Megawati Soekarnoputri.

Your comments:

The whole debate was a snooze fest. What they were basically saying was pretty much high level stuff, very generic and things that I have known since I was in kindergarten. Well, there were a few interesting tidbits but when it began to get interesting they switched gears back to singing a lullaby.

Tywin Lannister

How could it be 1-0? It was a draw for sure. Prabowo is a generous aristocrat and visionary, and Jokowi is a hard worker and good at executing. No reason to say 1-0 score, it'€™s too early.

Gilang

Congrats to Jokowi-Kalla. I was surprised that Jokowi was not  as bad as I thought, on the contrary he made excellent points  in  three of five questions;  regional autonomy, corruption eradication and overcoming obstacles to good governance.  

Simplification of the regional election process in stages and without changing it drastically is a viable answer that can be implemented  without too much difficulty.

On corruption eradication  he has put in place e'€“government for bidding, procurement, auditing etc. this shows that he is a man  who is savvy about  ICT and combined with Kalla leads by example.

Another good point Jokowi made was implementation of budget policy to influence, nurture and control the regional governments. He made this point based on his experience as a former mayor and governor.

On Kalla he also made a good point about his experience in carrying out the task of reconciling ethnic conflicts in Aceh, Poso, Ambon etc.

Orchar Charad

So Prabowo is promoting the rights of every citizen and his welfare and in an election upset he could become the next president. I'€™d like to ask how an ex-military strongman who has projected  his power by using violence can be like a leopard wanting to change its spots?

Instead of clearly explaining his human rights record and his past business reputation, he lamely says his conscience is clear. All voters should have genuine doubts about this '€œgreat man'€.

Tant KT

I can say this debate was a draw. Prabowo-Hatta talked about macro with less micro knowledge and Jokowi-Kalla talked micro with less macro knowledge.

Lamda Arliyando

Joko delivered a punch. He won hands down and exposed cracks in the Prabowo-Hatta camp.

Abdul Malik

When Jokowi said he came to lots of villages and opened dialogues with small people that'€™s what a governor should do, not a president. There are too many things to handle for him to come to small areas and ask '€œwhat should we do for you'€? Are we talking about visiting more than 200 million Indonesian citizens here and actually listening to their issues?

Nitiamonto

I'€™m sure Jokowi will visit more places in a more effective manner than what the previous presidents did. This is imperative to augment (or to repair) relationships between the central and regional governments, and increase awareness on various problems in different regions.

Yes, this should have been done more proactively by the governors. But have they really been doing this? Not really!

What Indonesia needs is not only a smart leader, but one who wants to understand various problems in the nation and will actually do something about them.

Jay