By: Ahmad Harris *
The first debate between the presidential and vice presidential candidates in welcoming the 2019 election attracted the attention of the Indonesian people. I myself chose to watch the debate at one of the cafes that provided nobar facilities (watching together) for the two supporters of the presidential candidate. The debate seemed to remind me of the last World Cup final between France and Croatia. At the same cafe, I watched the match accompanied by cheers from supporters of both countries. Unlike the Nobar World Cup, the inaugural debate of the first presidential election was also able to make the audience debate to cheer each other for an instant there was an interesting debate momentum.
One of the momentum that is quite interesting in the café is the debating session on Human Rights. On this occasion, Prabowo Subianto quipped Jokowi by saying that law enforcement in the era of his administration was unfair. Prabowo gave an example of a case of arresting one of the village heads who supported him. “Sometimes the apparatus is biased. For example, if there is a regional head, the governor who supports the candidate pair 01 stated that there was no support, but there was a village head who stated that support 02 was arrested. I think this is an unfair treatment because declaring an opinion is guaranteed by the Constitution. Anyone can express their opinion of support to anyone I think. We beg you to calculate that there are too many men, “Prabowo quipped.
Refuting Prabowo’s criticism, Jokowi stated that there was a legal basis that could be taken if the charges submitted by Prabowo matched the facts. In fact, Jokowi again insinuated Prabowo by bringing up the hoax case of Ratna Sarumpaet who claimed to be battered from being beaten when in fact it was due to plastic surgery. “Don’t accuse like that, Mr. Prabowo. We are a state of law, there are legal mechanism legal procedures, if there is evidence to just convey it to the authorities, do not we usually give something. Jurkam Pak Prabowo was said to have been tortured with a battered face, then the press conference finally happened, it turned out to be plastic surgery, “Jokowi replied. The satire suddenly changed the atmosphere of the cafe which had been silent in the beginning to be noisy. Supporters of stronghold 01 laugh out loud accompanied by supporters of camp 02 who can only smile without saying anything.
Instantly, the moment was indeed very similar to Nobar’s soccer match at the cafe when there was one team that scored against the opponent’s goal. Jokowi’s supporters at that time were very satisfied with Jokowi’s innuendo to Prabowo Subianto. Shortly after, the hot momentum in the debate reappeared. Jokowi insinuated Prabowo’s statement about corruption in Indonesia which had reached stage 4. According to Jokowi, the Gerindra Party proposed 6 ex-prisoners of corruption in the legislative elections. The insinuation immediately prompted Prabowo to cut Jokowi’s question. Instantly, the atmosphere of the cafe again became boisterous with laughter from supporters of Jokowi’s camp. Moreover, the momentum of Prabowo doing jogging in front of the TV camera adds to the funny atmosphere in the hubbub at the cafe. Again, Prabowo’s supporters were only able to smile shyly at the behavior of the figures they supported.
Although at a glance it resembles the atmosphere of the nobar in the world cup soccer match, there is something different in the noble of the first presidential debate, especially in the final session of the debate. President Jokowi along with Kyai Ma’ruf Amin suddenly stepped towards Prabowo Subianto and Sandiaga Uno. Seeing this, Prabowo Subianto and Sandiaga Uno welcomed and headed towards Jokowi and Kyai Ma’ruf Amin. Suddenly, the two candidate pairs hugged each other. Immediately, the cafe was filled with applause from supporters of the two candidate pairs. There are no cynical gazes, no mutual hostile gazes between supporters, all there is only a deep appreciation for sportsmanship displayed by the two pairs of candidates. The two supporters in the cafe shook each other and smiled at each other. At the same time, I realized, that in the first debate, neither Jokowi-Kyai Ma’ruf Amin nor Prabowo-Sandiaga Uno won the match but the democracy that emerged as the winner. Not only won over all differences in political choice, but also was able to reduce the narrative of disputes between the two.
*) FISIP Student at Dharma Agung University