JP/Dhoni Setiawan

Gerindra Party chairman and presidential hopeful Prabowo Subianto detailed a multitude of ills plaguing Indonesia in his campaign speech on Monday evening, citing problems ranging from an overburdened national healthcare system to a struggling economy.

He depicted a country where farmers and teachers hang themselves because of financial pressures, hospitals turn sick people away because the Healthcare and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan) has not reimbursed them, and state-owned enterprises are going under.

“It is easy to say that Indonesia will last for a thousand years,” he said. “But can a country that cannot pay hospitals, that cannot guarantee food for its people, that doesn’t have a strong military, last for a thousand years?”

His solution to the many and varied problems: vote for him in the upcoming presidential election.

“The victory that we can achieve on April 17, 2019, is not Prabowo’s victory, not Sandiaga Uno’s victory, but the victory of the Indonesian nation,” he said.

Politicians from the coalition supporting President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s reelection bid have called out the speech as being overly pessimistic.

Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) secretary-general, Hasto Kristiyanto, said Prabowo’s rhetoric belittled the achievements of the Jokowi administration and would only result in him losing votes.

“What was communicated in the speech is consistent with Pak Prabowo’s character: attacking and minimizing Indonesia’s achievements,” he said in a statement on Tuesday, citing the success of events such as the Asian Games and the Asian Para Games as examples.

“Minimizing the achievements of Jokowi and [Vice President] Jusuf Kalla will only reduce Prabowo and Sandi’s electability, not only in Java and Sulawesi, but also in Sumatra, Kalimantan, East Nusa Tenggara, Papua and other parts of eastern Indonesia that have felt the effects of Jokowi and JK’s policies,” he said.

Golkar Party politician and Jokowi campaign team spokesperson Ace Hasan Syadzily called the speech clichéd and “lacking fresh ideas”.

“Everything is portrayed as bad, miserable, backward and dependent,” he said on Tuesday. “That way Prabowo can act as the savior.”

Ace likened Prabowo’s speech to those made by United States President Donald Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign. “[Prabowo] is stirring up sentiment and emotion by using dramatic examples without being backed up by accurate data and facts.”

Fellow campaign spokesperson and NasDem Party lawmaker Irma Suryani Chaniago echoed Ace’s sentiments, saying that everything seemed bad in Prabowo’s eyes.

“A nationalistic speech should be filled with optimism, not negative thinking and pessimism toward one’s own country,” she said. “A pessimistic leader cannot bring Indonesia forward because he will lack ideas and be quick to give up.”

Analysts, however, said Prabowo’s speech was typical of the type of rhetoric opposition candidates used when running against incumbents.

Firman Noor, head of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences Political Research Center, compared his speech to those made by United Kingdom opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn.

“Prabowo is criticizing the government and pointing out things he thinks he can improve upon, such as food self-sufficiency and fuel self-sufficiency,” he told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

He said Prabowo’s “pessimistic” tone was less motivated by a sincere belief that the country was close to destruction, but rather as a starting point for Prabowo and his team to make the argument against voting for the incumbent.

This is not the first time the former general has expressed a gloomy outlook for the country. In March 2018, he said Indonesia could break up by 2030, while last month he said Indonesia could become “extinct” if he did not prevail in the upcoming elections.

“The rhetoric is designed to attract attention to his arguments, because it might lack impact otherwise,” Firman said. “Whether it will be effective in persuading voters remains to be seen, but it’s clear that the electorate is very divided right now.”

Paramadina University political communication analyst Hendri Satrio said that while Prabowo was an effective orator, the content of his speech lacked variety and needed freshening up.

He disagreed, however, that the speech was overly pessimistic. “Even though there were elements of fear, there were elements of hope also,” he said. “But he needs to be more specific about the programs that he is offering to have more of an impact.”

________________________

Prabowo speech: Fact check

Gerindra Party chairman Prabowo Subianto made many claims about the state of the country in his “Indonesia Triumphs” campaign speech on Monday. Check the veracity of some of his more dramatic claims below:

Statement:

At the beginning of his speech, Prabowo cited three examples of people who had recently committed suicide because of economic problems as examples of the struggles lower-income people faced: a farm laborer in Grobogan, Central Java, a teacher in Pekalongan, Central Java, and a woman in Gunungkidul, Yogyakarta.

True

In December 2017, Hardi, a resident of Tawangharjo village in Grobogan, was found dead. Police said that excessive debt might have been the motivation. In April 2018, Raharjo, a teacher in Pekalongan, was found to have committed suicide for similar reasons. Earlier this month, Sudarsi, a 44-year-old housewife in Gunungkidul, hanged herself for what police said were economic reasons.

According to the 2016 data from the World Health Organization, Indonesia’s suicide rate was 3.4 per 100,000 people, a decrease from 4 per 100,000 in 2000. The rate was also significantly lower than the Southeast Asian average of 13.2 per 100,000.

Statement:

Prabowo said the failure of the Healthcare and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan) to reimburse hospitals led to the hospitals turning away patients.

PARTLY TRUE

BPJS Kesehatan is running a Rp 10.99 trillion deficit and has been late in paying some hospitals, which has led to several hospitals across the country displaying banners saying that they had not been reimbursed by the BPJS but were still accepting BPJS patients out of duty.

BPJS Kesehatan terminated contracts with dozens of hospitals at the beginning of the year, but the agency said that was because the hospitals had not yet received accreditation from the Hospital Accreditation Committee (KARS), not because of budgetary considerations.

Statement:

Prabowo said that one out of three toddlers had stunted growth because of a lack of protein.

TRUE

According to data from the World Health Organization, 36.4 percent of children aged from zero to 59 months in Indonesia suffer from stunting, which is defined as a condition in which a child fails to reach his or her linear growth potential.

Statement:

Prabowo said that if he won the election he would raise doctors’ salaries, saying that many doctors had salaries that were lower than those of parking attendants.

TECHNICALLY TRUE, BUT

A direct comparison would be difficult to make without more specific information.

Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI) secretary-general Daeng M. Faqih told The Jakarta Post that doctors in some rural areas made less than Rp 3 million (US$212.91) a month. “But I don’t know exactly how much a parking attendant makes.”

Parking attendants employed by the Jakarta Transportation Agency make about Rp 3.4 million a month, but data about parking attendant income in other regions is not available.

Statement:

Prabowo said that Indonesia’s national fuel reserve was only enough for 20 days, implying that it was dangerously low.

TECHNICALLY TRUE, BUT

Indonesia’s fuel stockpile is comparable to most other countries.

State-owned oil company Pertamina spokesperson Arya Dwi Paramita confirmed that the fuel reserve was enough for about 20 days, adding that that was a safe level.

Australia’s fuel reserve is also enough for about 20 days, while the United States and China’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve each have enough oil for about 36 days.

— JP/ Karina M. Tehusijarana, Dyaning Pangestika, Stefanno Reinard Sulaiman

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