The second presidential debate on Sunday will see incumbent President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo talk about his achievements in four sectors, namely energy, infrastructure, food and the environment, while contender Prabowo Subianto will point out the current administration’s weaknesses.

The campaign teams of Jokowi-Ma’ruf Amin and Prabowo-Sandiaga Uno say they have made the necessary preparations for the debate, which is organized by the General Elections Commission (KPU) and will be broadcast nationwide.

Aria Bima, program director for Jokowi’s camp, said the topic of the upcoming presidential debate was Jokowi’s strongpoint because he was able to highlight his achievements over the past four years in office.

“Jokowi only needs to show what his Cabinet has done all these years with valid supporting data. Even better, we won’t need to prepare responses to possible criticism from Prabowo about the incumbent’s achievements,” he told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Prabowo-Sandiaga Uno team spokesman Andre Rosiade told the Post on Friday their camp had been preparing arguments and ideas for the upcoming debate for the past week.

“Last week we briefed Pak Prabowo in Hambalang [Prabowo’s residence in West Java] as preparation for the debate. […] On the day of the debate we will have a small brief again,” he added.

Among the achievements the Jokowi camp will highlight are the President’s ability to maintain food prices at an affordable level and measures to increase the electrification ratio to 99.99 percent.

Two days ahead of the debate, Prabowo gave a speech in Semarang, Central Java, laying out his visions on the theme of food, energy and water before his supporters.

“We must be able to achieve food self-sufficiency to feed our citizens. No one should live in starvation and no children should suffer from malnutrition in an independent country,” Prabowo said.

Indonesia, he said, should be able to produce its own fuel instead of depending on other countries to obtain fuel supplies in order to achieve energy self-sufficiency.

The former general also cited a United Nations report saying that all countries in the world were at risk of facing a global water crisis in the coming years.

“We will look for solutions to all problems and difficulties that our nation faces [...] we are confident that Indonesia will be triumphant,” Prabowo said, referring to his camp’s campaign slogan.

The Prabowo camp’s campaigner Faldo Maldini said the team was ready to take on the incumbent’s record and turn it into a weapon for them, such as the electrification ratio.

“With a budget that wasn’t as big as now, former President SBY [Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono] increased electrification far more than Jokowi. SBY was able to grow the ratio from 75 to almost 90 percent. While Jokowi only continued from 90 to 98.3 percent,” he said.

The Prabowo camp would also question the flagship project to develop power plants with a combined capacity of 35 gigawatts, the progress of which was going at a snail’s pace, he said.

The Jokowi camp is also expected to take pride in the administration’s achievement in boosting infrastructure development across the country. However, it is likely that the Prabowo camp will criticize how the current administration relies more on loans, rather than taxpayers’ money or other sources, to finance the development.

Meanwhile, Merah Johansyah, national coordinator of environmental group Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam), urged both camps to discuss the negative impacts of the mining sector rather than just its positive contribution to the country’s economy.

He said coal and other mining businesses had been a political commodity and funding sources for political campaigns at the national and regional levels in Indonesia for a long time.

Merah said the relationship between government policies and regulations, royalties, taxes and government infrastructure had exposed the sector to corruption, and that key players in the coal industry would play an important role in the election, both for the Jokowi and Prabowo camps.

When asked about both camps’ strategies, Center of Reform on Economics Indonesia economist Akhmad Akbar Susanto said on Friday the upcoming debate would be shallow if both candidates only played at a conceptual level, rather than offering clear how-to-do scenarios.

“What we think would be best for the debate is if they discuss more substantive and productive matters,” he said. (das)

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