A lieutenant general under former Indonesian president Suharto who is running for the Indonesian presidency was forced to defend his human rights record during the first televised debate of the campaign — a contest many observers thought was won by his opponent, former Jakarta governor Joko Widodo.
Former army official Prabowo Subianto has been running about 10 points behind in opinion polls, and was looking to close that gap amid a perception that Widodo lacks the experience needed to run the country of 240 million.
However, Widodo’s performance in Monday night’s debate more than matched Subianto’s.
Photo: AFP
Known as “Jokowi,” Widodo picked former Indonesian vice president Jusuf Kalla as his running mate for the July 9 election and the pair are backed by a coalition of political parties, raising the prospect they might be able to push through economic reforms and tackle corruption if elected.
As Jakarta governor, Widodo won plaudits for trying to tackle traffic congestion and flooding, rolled out a new health insurance program, expanded free schooling for the poor and started construction on a long-awaited subway line.
On Monday, Kalla landed the only blow of the night by challenging Subianto over allegations he abducted pro-democracy activists in 1998 at the end of three decades of hardline rule by Suharto.
Subianto appeared flustered and said: “I am a former soldier who has done his duty as best as I can.”
Opinion polls have shown support for Subianto, a former son-in-law of Suharto’s, firming up in recent weeks. He got a boost when Golkar, the second-largest party in the country, announced it would join the coalition nominating him and not field its own candidate.
His running mate is Indonesian Minister of Economics Hatta Rajasa.
The Jakarta Post published a commentary yesterday criticizing Subianto’s response to the question on the activists as sadly without remorse.
The newspaper said it was hard to be convinced by Subianto’s statements on protecting plurality, while Widodo and Kalla can point to their records on the matter.
This will be Indonesia’s first election in which only two candidates are running for president, removing the need for a possible runoff.
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