Presidential debates are a favorite pastime of mine. Whether I am alone or with company, they never fail to awaken the teenage girl within me who delights in arguments and their deconstruction. It is probably the same reason I have delved into public policy—a world full of ambiguity and contrasting positions—for the past 10 years; those who know me well would go as far as calling arguments my “love language”.

Naturally, my eyes were glued to the screen during the past two debates. Many punches were thrown, and each candidate’s position became much clearer in my head. However, I was surprised to find a flood of video clips on social media the following morning that framed the outcome to be almost contrary to how I remembered it went. Even more fundamentally, some would contend that these debates “do not matter” because that’s not what being a president is about.

So, what is being a president about?

In a few months, Indonesia will hold its quinquennial “hiring panel” consisting of over 200 million voters. Alas, everyone has a different idea about what the job entails, and subsequently the criteria to choose one candidate over another. To make it even more complicated, it will be the first time voting for roughly a quarter of them.

This predicament is not unique to Indonesia but exists in democracies all around the world. In 2016, the United States decided to hire a narcissistic businessman who promised to build a wall. In 2019, Brazil followed by electing a populist who championed deforestation of the Amazon. In 2022, the Philippines went for the former dictator’s son partly thanks to his dance moves on the stage. These are all valid outcomes of democracy as they captured what the countries’ majority was looking for at a given time.

Hence election, at its core, is a clash of “Which criteria should we base our votes on?” Once we figure that out, candidates will just race to fit in.

One of the most universal criteria is likeability. Steve Jarding, my former professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, always told his “Making of a Politician” classroom that at the end of the day, it is about making your voters feel like they can ‘sit down and have a drink with you’. As much as I abhor it, what he said makes sense.

Popular

Indonesia not affected by Southeast Asia-wide heat wave: BMKG

Residents fear for safety as Mount Ruang volcano erupts

In defense of Indonesian democracy