By: Ahmad Harris *
Prabowo Subianto, who was familiarly called General Kardus by Andi Arief in the 2014 election, again made a ridiculous mistake in his campaign. Because, Prabowo said Indonesia is on a level with poor countries on the African continent such as Rwanda, Haiti and Kiribati. Instead of increasing the enthusiasm of the participants, his speech became a laughingstock for netizens on social media. It’s ridiculous, of course if a presidential candidate doesn’t know that Haiti is on the American continent, not in Africa.
At the very least, even if he did not know this, the data and information on the internet were open enough to be accessible to a Prabowo. Unfortunately, validation and cross check data is indeed not something he is happy to do. Prabowo Subianto seems to prefer to follow his instincts and desires to drop incumbents without paying attention to data and facts. As a result, what he said tends to be empty and does not contain even backfire for himself.
Calling Haiti as part of the African continent is indeed something quite funny. However, the strangest of the speeches, he equated the economic conditions of the country of Indonesia with Rwanda, Haiti and Kiribati without knowing the economic facts of the country. Based on the official website www.cia.gov, Haiti is an economic country that adheres to a free market with 60% of its people living below the poverty line. Meanwhile, according to the World Bank, Indonesian people who are still living in the poverty line in 2017 are only 10.6%.
In addition, Indonesia has a GDP of around Rp. 14,813 trillion and GNI per capita has reached Rp. 51.6 million. If compared to the same year, Haiti lagged far behind with GDP of IDR 122.58 trillion and GNI per capita of IDR 11 million. Likewise with debt, Indonesia is noted to be still manageable with a figure of 28.7% of GDP. Meanwhile, Rwanda has a debt of 40.2% of GDP and Haiti of 32% of GDP. On the other hand, from the unemployment rate, Indonesia is only at 5.3% compared to Rwanda with 16% and Haiti reaching 14%. Based on these data, it can be said that the condition of the Indonesian economy is tens of times better than Haiti, not as stated by Prabowo Subianto.
Prabowo’s statement regarding Haiti and Rwanda seemed to remind us of the previous campaign which was equally controversial. On the occasion of speaking a few months ago, Prabowo said that the Indonesian people living in poverty reached 99%. Whereas in the BPS data release in February 2018, the Indonesian people living in the poverty line were recorded at only 10.6%. Likewise with various other mistakes from Prabowo in giving speeches or speaking in public, only mere boasting and lying.
Prabowo’s mistakes in campaigning showed two important phenomena that were happening in the Gerindra camp and the coalition. First, Prabowo and his winning team were poor generations of literacy and references who were reluctant to read data to compile material to be delivered in Prabowo’s campaign. As a result, Prabowo’s campaign continues to be a laughingstock for the people of Indonesia. Secondly, Prabowo and his winning team prioritize fear political strategies and ignore the data and facts that occur. As a result, Prabowo only talked about pessimistic narratives for Indonesia.
Regardless of the possibility of the phenomenon occurring, Prabowo’s camp looks very unfit to be able to run the wheels of government. Indeed, Indonesia would be extinct if it was led by a poor stronghold of generations or camps that were pessimistic about their own people. I would not advise Mr. Prabowo to change the way the campaign or mindset is because it is too late to improve his image in front of the community. Only, I suggest Mr. Prabowo to resign as presidential candidate. Not just to win Jokowi but to win back the honor and dignity that has been lost to the earth.
*) FISIP student at the Dharma Agung University