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Mini debate
And as usual, in the wake of the debate, each camp declared victory, with the candidates' social media teams hyping their respective candidate’s performances into overdrive, slicing and dicing clips from the debate long after the performance was over.
Vice presidential candidates Muhaimin Iskandar (left), Gibran Rakabuming Raka (center) and Mahfud MD attend a televised debate on Dec. 22, 2023, at the Jakarta Convention Center in Jakarta. (Reuters/Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana)
In the end, the debate was not the train wreck that many had hoped it would be. If anything, it was a muted affair where vice presidential candidates traded zingers, not-so-memorable one liners and in the case of Gerindra Party candidate Gibran Rakabuming Raka, a heavy dose of snarky retorts.
And as usual, in the wake of the debate, each camp declared victory, with the candidates' social media teams hyping their respective candidate’s performances into overdrive, slicing and dicing clips from the debate long after the performance was over.Then again, vice presidential debates never matter in the first place. Even the presidential debates themselves rarely sway voters’ preferences, let alone shift election outcomes.
The only reason viewers anticipated the televised vice presidential debate late last week was simply because it featured Gibran, the son of an incumbent president who joined the ticket of presidential front-runner Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto.
There was certainly an element of suspense going into the debate, especially among Gibran’s supporters, who were concerned that with his lack of experience, he would deliver a wobbly performance against two of the country’s most seasoned politicians, National Awakening Party (PKB) chairman Muhamin Iskandar and Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD.
It did not help that in the lead-up to second presidential debate last week, social media was awash with clips showing Gibran flubbing his responses to the simplest of questions during public events. One of the biggest blunders was when he used the term sulfuric acid to refer to the nutritional compound most pregnant women need for the healthy growth of their babies.
Simply put, Gibran, who had only served as mayor of Surakarta for two years before being nominated as VP, is an underdog, and the bar seemingly so low, he over-performed on Friday.
Not only did the 36-year-old did not flub his lines, he managed to engage with two senior politicians twice his age and to defend some of his father’s policies such as nickel downstreaming and infrastructure projects, and even managed to respond to an allegation from Muhaimin that his administration in Surakarta had benefitted too much from the central government.
Gibran also managed to land a “gotcha” question for both Muhaimin and Mahfud when he asked the former his take on the State of the Global Islamic Economy (SGIE) and the latter on Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).
But even before these trick questions, Muhaimin and Mahfud were only able to deliver a subdued performance.
Anyone expecting the two to repeat the dramatic performance of presidential candidates Anies Baswedan and Ganjar Pranowo from the first debate was certainly disappointed.
We can also certainly speculate that after the explosive first debate, political advisers in the three camps thought that they needed to lower the temperature or risk further escalation of tension.
For both Muhaimin and Mahfud, there were clear reasons not to show hostility toward Gibran on the stage.
Until only a few months ago, Muhaimin’s PKB was still a member of President Jokowi’s ruling coalition, and the party chairman’s younger brother Abdul Halim Iskandar is the villages, disadvantaged regions and transmigration minister.
As for Mahfud, he continues to serve as the coordinating political, legal and security affairs minister under Jokowi.
With the three candidates basically part of the same club, there was little that they could debate regarding policies.
Amid the posturing and grandstanding from the candidates last Friday, we heard some interesting new ideas like the development of 40 new urban centers from Muhaimin and a proposal for stepping up the fight against graft so that Indonesia can achieve 7 percent economic growth made by Mahfud.
That is something we need to hear more of in the next presidential debate.
