Green Growth Is ‘Way to Go’ for Asia, Indonesia: OECD

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says low- and middle-income countries in Southeast Asia ‘shouldn’t miss the good opportunity’ to clean up their act with ‘green growth’ solutions that many of its member states are marketing worldwide at lower prices every day. (Antara Photo/ Fanny Octavianus)

Yogyakarta. Indonesia is expected to take on a leadership role in a regional campaign for green economic growth, with a new report suggesting it is a high time for Southeast Asia — one of the world’s fastest-growing regions — to abandon business as usual and embrace sustainable developments.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, in its latest report launched on Tuesday, says Southeast Asia has ample opportunities to make use of green technologies that have become increasingly available, some of which have also been growing more affordable.

Green growth has traditionally been seen as a costly alternative to the status-quo, typically yielding lesser outcomes. For these reasons green growth has long been dispreferred among low-income nations.

But the OECD report argues that green growth should be “the way to go” for the region, that its economic growth can go hand in hand with sustainable developments, as the latter has increasingly become a necessity instead.

“Infrastructure and the built environment are being determined now [in Southeast Asia], defining energy consumption, pollution levels and resilience for decades to come,” according to the report, titled “Towards Green Growth in Southeast Asia.”

“The experience of many OECD and other emerging countries shows that growth strategies that ignore environmental performance eventually result in expensive clean-up and mitigation measures, as well as large welfare losses.”

“Southeast Asia has a golden opportunity to leapfrog over the low-performing, polluting, resource-inefficient technologies of more developed countries … leapfrog 20th Century technologies and infrastructure by adopting clean, viable and economical alternatives.”

OECD deputy secretary-general Rintaro Tamaki said the organization of high-income nations acknowledged progress that had been made in Southeast Asia toward low-emission developments, but that more could be done by the region to “put on the green growth path.”

Tamaki said the OECD advises countries in the region on strategies and policy recommendations toward sustainable growth, summing up the report in three key messages:

“First, economic growth and environmental sustainability are inseparable. Secondly, Southeast Asia shouldn’t miss the good opportunity of this time. Thirdly, the political leaders should be essential,” Tamaki told a press conference on the sidelines of Asia Low-Emission Development Strategies Forum 2014, which took place in Yogyakarta from Tuesday through Thursday.

The report cites an example of how outdoor air pollution, which resulted in nearly 200,000 deaths in the region in 2010 and cost over $280 billion — according to a World Health Organization report earlier this year, can be curbed in the future by developing more environmentally friendly transportation networks.

“By reducing air pollution, better public transport can reduce these [health impact] costs and benefit the economy by easing congestion and increasing productivity,” the report says.

The report cites coastal flooding in Southeast Asian cities as another example, as such flooding was estimated to cost the region $300 million in average annual losses in 2005.

“Even with significant investment in adaptation the price tag [of coastal flooding] could climb to $6 billion by 2050. Installing climate-resilient structure now and being much more ambitious in adaptation efforts could limit the damage and attract businesses seeking long-lasting, resilient investments.”

The report also highlights the issue of fossil fuel subsidies, saying they amounted to about $51 billion in 2012 in Southeast Asia, equivalent to about 11 percent of all general government spending.

Indonesia has the largest fossil fuel subsidy program in the region, the OECD said .

“We’re in particular suggesting to the Indonesian government to reduce your fossil fuel subsidies accounting for 15 percent of the total [government] expenditure, and 60 percent of education and health expenditures,” Tamaki said, citing 2012 figures.

“Removing or reducing these subsidies — while alleviating any social impacts investing the savings in education, health and social welfare programs — will simultaneously reduce environmental pressures and increase wellbeing.”

Indonesia’s role

Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, regional director for Asia at the Climate and Development Knowledge Network, said Indonesia was expected to lead green economic growth campaign for Southeast Asia, continuing with what it’s already been doing.

He cited Indonesia’s leadership shown in the Bali Action Plan, and later through its 2010 commitment to reduce the country’s carbon emissions by 26 percent by 2020 using its own resources — and by 41 percent with international assistance.

“Low carbon development strategies [must be championed through] Indonesia’s leadership in Southeast Asian regions,” Sheikh told the same press conference in Yogyakarta.

“Indonesia must take leadership in stabilizing the global temperature at 2 degrees [Celsius], because Indonesia is under imminent threat of [global warming],” he added, referring to the temperature rise ceiling agreed upon by countries in Copenhagen in 2009.

Sheikh earlier said, citing a latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, that Indonesia and other island nations in Asia would be hit hardest by sea level rise. Many of the coastal areas will be submerged, even if the world manages to curb temperature increase below 2 degrees Celsius.

“[Indonesia] needs to protect its territory. Indonesia has to protect its natural resource base, forests and others,” Sheikh said. “They’re not only important to Indonesia and its economy, they’re also important to stabilize global temperature and global climate.”

Endah Murniningtyas, a deputy minister for national resources and environment at Indonesia’s National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), claimed that the Indonesian government had “mainstreamed” low-emission growth in its development agenda. In Indonesian development parlance, “mainstreaming” means an issue is at least nominally regarded as a core priority, often at the behest of outsiders, that policy makers are obliged to address.

“Indonesia has internalized, has mainstreamed emission reductions in its development programs,” Endah said.

“In many countries, climate change and development issues have not been combined. But I can say in Indonesia we’ve luckily done that, although there remain many challenges ahead.”

She added Indonesia was willing to continue its environmental leadership, this time with green growth campaign in Southeast Asia.

“Since the beginning, Indonesia has been committed to taking the lead, to give examples as to how this [green campaign] can be done,” Endah said.

She added she believed, supporting the OECD report’s suggestion, that low-emission development would not go against Southeast Asia’s goals of economic growth and poverty reductions.

Tamaki, meanwhile, dismissed concerns that green technologies to support low-emission developments were too expensive for developing nations, citing as an example the continually declining costs of solar power, an alternative renewable energy source.

“Looking at the solar panel prices, they decline very quickly. [Solar panel] is now a traded good in international markets. Any countries, developed or developing, can enjoy the price changes, price declines.”

Tamaki said what remained to be seen was willpower from governments in Southeast Asia to embrace low-emission developments, suggesting that they could begin with attracting more foreign direct investments in the renewable energy sector.

He added governments in Southeast Asia, too, could use carbon trading and or carbon taxation schemes to encourage the growth of sustainable development projects in their respective nations.

“Public and private finance providers are increasingly seeking green investment opportunities as part of a growing international and domestic trend towards investment portfolios, whose profits go hand-in-hand with environmental performance,” the OECD report says.

“Southeast Asia has the opportunity to lead this global shift, given its rapid industrialization and natural resource wealth.”

 

Note: This story was originally published at Jakarta Globe on Nov. 14, 2014.

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Rising Seas Threaten Jokowi’s Maritime Plan

Yogyakarta. President Joko Widodo may have to rethink his plan to boost Indonesia’s maritime power, with experts questioning whether he is aware of the looming threat posed by rising sea levels, and whether he has considered the potential ecological impact of maritime developments.

Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, the Asia regional director of the Climate and Development Knowledge Network, reiterated on Monday the “very, very serious threat” posed by rising sea levels, due to climate change, to island nations in Asia, including the world’s largest archipelago, Indonesia.

He was citing the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which says even if the world could manage to keep rising global temperatures to below 2 degrees Celsius — the ceiling that many countries have agreed on — it would still damage the environment and threaten many ecosystems and humanity, especially in island nations.

“In Indonesia’s context, even 2 degrees [Celsius] means a much larger increase [in sea levels] in some parts of the country than the global average,” Sheikh said during a discussion of the IPCC’s recently finalized Fifth Assessment Report in Yogyakarta. “A 2 degree [Celsius] rise in this century would mean that many islands and coastal areas in Indonesia will be inundated.”

He added that coastal infrastructure, too, which Joko is seeking to develop, would fall victim to rising sea levels.

“Lots of infrastructure located along the coastal areas of smaller islands, including airstrips and [other] infrastructure, would be seriously damaged, eroded or destroyed,” Sheikh told journalists on the sidelines of Monday’s launch of the IPCC report for Asian regions.

“The single biggest threat to Indonesia’s ambition to boost its maritime power will come from rising sea levels,” he added.

The IPCC, through its Fifth Assessment Report, has raised an alert that the climate is changing at a faster rate than scientists had earlier anticipated. Between 1901 and 2010, sea levels had risen by 19 centimeters, while the 2001-2010 period is dubbed the hottest decade ever recorded. Global temperatures have risen 0.85 degrees Celsius on average since 1880.

“The report highlights that action needs to be taken now because every year, [along with] increases in emissions, adaptations become more and more expensive,” Ari Huhtala, deputy chief executive of London-based Climate and Development Knowledge Network, told the press conference.

Science-based

Indonesian environmental scientist Rizaldi Boer of the Bogor Institute of Agriculture reminded the Indonesian government to use a scientific approach, including that concerning climate change, in outlining policies in general, and in plans to develop the maritime sector in particular.

He cited an example of the giant sea wall the Jakarta administration is building along the city’s northern coast, questioning its lack of scientific basis, which may make the project a waste after all.

“Sufficient scientific studies are needed in the revitalization [of existing maritime hubs] and development of new ones, in order to minimize negative impacts [on the environment],” said Rizaldi, also a director of the Center for Climate Risk and Opportunity Management in Southeast Asia Pacific.

“Climate change must be included in environmental impact analyses of maritime infrastructure projects, such as in the construction of harbors,” he said. “Anticipation on climate change] must be captured in designs of the harbors … the infrastructure must be durable enough to address a changing climate in the future.”

As part of president Joko’s ambition to turn Indonesia into a “global maritime axis,” his vision of the archipelago as a strong maritime nation, he has established the office of the coordinating minister for maritime affairs. Joko has also ordered the expansion of Indonesia’s sea-patrol fleet, while he has recently expressed an interest in China’s new maritime Silk Road — which entails development of ports and industrial parks across Southeast Asia.

Rizaldi further addressed the issue of marine ecosystems that might be harmed by such maritime projects, emphasizing the importance of mapping out the condition of Indonesia’s marine ecosystems and making decisions concerning those projects accordingly.

“If we’re talking about maritime [issues], it’s also related to exploitation of maritime resources, and we have to be careful on that,” he said.

“It’s really important to properly assess the vulnerability of the coastal ecosystems, and this actually should help the government decide what kind of strategies it can implement to reduce that vulnerability, and at the same time design adaptive measures to be taken to overcome negative impacts.”

Fredolin Tangang, a researcher at the National University of Malaysia, explained how global warming and climate change, in addition to coastal infrastructure projects, were threatening many marine ecosystems across the world.

The absorption of carbon by the oceans makes seawater more acidic, while global warming results in rising temperatures of the seawater, changing ecosystems, and causing some marine creatures to migrate to more habitable environments, he said.

“And that will create a domino effect for all kinds of marine species,” said Tangang, who is also the vice chairman of an IPCC working group.

Indonesian climatologist Edvin Aldrian, a co-author of the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report, told the Indonesian government to base its “blue economy,” or maritime-based economic development, on five pillars:

“Environmentally friendly; sustainability; minimum waste; an integrated system that leads to multi-cash flow; and community empowerment or participation.”

Paradigm shift

Poh Poh Wong of the National University of Singapore and another co-author of the IPCC report, said in order to minimize the impacts on climate change and rising sea levels on people living along coastal areas, the governments of island nations should prepare “buffer zones.”

A buffer zone will be where coastal people migrate to once rising sea levels cause their homes to be submerged and become uninhabitable.

“Governments must be forward-thinking, landward facing. You must have a buffer zone for people to migrate to from flooded areas,” Poh told a panel session at Monday’s event.

He added that anticipatory measures only are not enough and that a “paradigm shift” might be needed: from seeing rising sea levels as a threat to something more “positive.”

“Consider how to make flooded areas economically viable. The Dutch have done that; they have built the canals … And now the Dutch are experimenting with floating homes,” Poh said.

 

Note: This article was originally published at Jakarta Globe on Nov. 11, 2014.

 

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Jokowi’s Inauguration Marks a New Era for Indonesia

(Note: I didn’t put my byline here because I didn’t add anything new to the story. But yep, I wrote the whole article.)

Moving Forward: Joko Widodo’s election to the presidency is an interesting move away from the political elites who have traditionally dominated leadership towards a people-focused governance

From a furniture salesman in Solo, Central Java, to Jakarta governor and now the president of Indonesia, Joko Widodo’s rise to power has been defined by his love for the people. (EPA Photo/Sapoe Djagat)

 

Jakarta. The majority of Indonesians knew little about Joko Widodo, the mayor of the small Central Java city of Solo, before he grabbed the national media’s attention in early 2012 with his championing of a locally produced car.

In footage aired repeatedly on TV at that time Joko was seen driving an Esemka sport utility vehicle, saying he had purchased it for use as his official car, to promote locally made vehicles and support the industry.

While little is heard of the Esemka now — except for political opponents questioning the fate of the cars and accusing Joko of using it for image building.

People soon learned he was highly popular in Solo. Joko was re-elected as mayor in 2010 after winning 90 percent of the vote, thanks to a number of achievements — including a successful rebranding of Solo as the “Spirit of Java” and the city becoming a member of the Organization of World Heritage Cities.

Joko was named the world’s third-best mayor in 2012 by international think tank the City Mayors Foundation for successfully turning “a crime-ridden city into a regional center for arts and culture, which started to attract international tourism.”

“There is a long list of positive testimonials and genuine and very enthusiastic praise for the mayor, most particularly for his honesty and refusal to be corrupted — apparently an exception in Indonesia. He is a simple and humble guy who pays lots of attention to less fortunate people,” the foundation said.

Soon, his trademark “blusukan,” a Javanese word loosely translating into impromptu visits of grassroots people usually by leaders, became a popular term nationally.

A few months after his Esemka promo, Joko declared his intention of running for Jakarta governor with running mate Basuki Tjahaja Purnama.

The ticket was supported by a coalition of Joko’s Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and Basuki’s party, the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra).

The pair won with 53.8 percent of the vote in the election runoff against incumbent Fauzi Bowo.

Joko was elected as Jakarta governor on Sept. 29, 2012.

After the implementation of a number of popular policies — including kicking off the construction of Jakarta’s Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) network and the launch of Jakarta Health Cards and Smart Cards — his popularity continued to rise so much that PDI-P chairwoman and former Indonesian president Megawati Soekarnoputri, who had been pursuing another term as president, finally gave up the pursuit to Joko.

To boost the PDI-P vote ahead of the April 9 legislative election, Megawati mandated Joko to run for the presidency, although he was not even part of the PDI-P’s elite circle. Joko announced he would run for the presidency in March.

Megawati’s decision to nominate Joko as the PDI-P’s presidential candidate angered her main coalition partner, former Army general Prabowo Subianto, the founder of Gerindra.

Prabowo, also a former son-in-law of late president Suharto, accused Megawati of breaching the so-called Batu Tulis deal, in which she supposedly agreed that the PDI-P would support Prabowo’s presidential bid after he was Megawati’s running mate during the 2009 presidential election.

This ended the coalition between the PDI-P and Gerindra and after the former’s win in the April election, with 18.95 percent of the vote, Prabowo’s party began a deeply fractious campaign period ahead of the July 9 presidential election, where Joko, supported by five political parties, faced off with Prabowo, supported by seven parties. Joko recruited former Indonesian vice president Jusuf Kalla as his running mate, while Prabowo ran with National Mandate Party (PAN) chairman Hatta Rajasa.

The months leading to the election were marked by deeply emotional rivalry affecting, and dividing, many Indonesian voters.

While contestants and their official party backers fought and argued at the more intellectual level, at least in the series of presidential election debates organized by the General Elections Commission (KPU) and broadcast live on TV, at the grassroots the fights between supporters took a nasty turn.

Smear campaigns were launched against each other’s candidates, with those targeting Joko evidently more effective, as seen by his quickly declining popularity despite initially leading by more than 30 percentage points according to popularity surveys ahead of the election.

The KPU eventually announced the Joko-Kalla candidate pair as the election winner with 53.15 percent of the vote, with only 6.3 percentage points more than their rivals. The Constitutional Court upheld this outcome when it rejected a lawsuit by Prabowo challenging the election result and accusations that the KPU of orchestrated “massive, structured and systemic” fraud in favor of Joko.

‘Shadowy’ past

To more than half of Indonesian voters who voted for Joko, his past might sound simple and humble — that he was born 53 years ago, studied forestry at Yogyakarta’s Gadjah Mada University and then ran his own furniture business before joining the PDI-P and contesting the election for mayoral of Solo in 2005. He has three children with his wife Iriana.

A biography of him written by late journalist Yon Thoyrun, published in 2012, said Joko had come from a low-income family. He has three sisters. His late father sold wooden materials for buildings, and his shop often fell victim to dismantling by city officials in Solo.

The humble background has brought Joko closer to ordinary people and probably inspired his pro-people approach when dealing with public order, Yon said. This contributed much to his rapid rise in popularity in a nation where the political stage is dominated by elites that have always been close to power, but who have been mostly seen as detached from the people.

Joko’s rival Prabowo, for example, is the son of Sumitro Djojohadikusumo, a finance minister under Indonesia’s first president Sukarno, while Megawati is Sukarno’s eldest daughter.

On the other hand, Joko’s relatively unknown background made him vulnerable to smear campaigns during the election.

Messages broadcast daily via cell phones and social media in Indonesia, postings on shadowy websites and even a print tabloid called Obor Rakyat spun the tales of his past and background — spreading smears that Joko lied about his Muslim identity, that he was actually a Chinese Christian, that he was a Western capitalist agent and at the same time a communist, Jewish and Vatican agent, and many more.

In a predominantly Muslim nation such as Indonesia, despite the majority being moderate Muslims, these smears proved to sell well, costing Joko his popularity in the weeks leading to the July 9 election — although analysts also have attributed that to the PDI-P elite’s half-hearted support of him in the election campaign.

To date, doubts or even hatred over Joko’s religious background still linger among some conservative members of the Indonesian Muslim community.

“Vengeful politics” exercised by his political opponents — grouped under the opposition coalition that supported Prabowo’s presidential bid — are viewed by analysts as one of Joko’s main challenges in the five years of his presidency.

Prabowo’s Red-White Coalition has managed to stay united despite previous predictions of falling apart.

And in what analysts see as a retaliation for their presidential race defeat, together they have swept the speaker and deputy speaker posts at both the House of Representatives and the People’s Consultative Assembly, while scrapping direct elections of regional leaders, seen as an attempt to extend their oligarchical grip on supposedly autonomous regions.

Joko’s attempts to lure some Red-White Coalition members to his side haven’t been fruitful so far, although this also has largely been attributed to the PDI-P’s poor political communication and Megawati’s indifference toward other parties’ approaches.

Although Joko has continued denying that he will become a mere puppet president to Megawati — as his opponents have often accused him of, it’s unfortunate that it is fairly evident that he barely has power over his own party.

If this situation continues in the current direction, Joko’s central policies may face ongoing challenges from inside the House, and his policies in the regions may face major hurdles from regional leaders and legislative councils.

In the financial markets, Indonesian stocks have been on a declining trend in the past month over these looming prospects.

Joko, though, regardless of any emotional turmoil he might have inside, looks as relaxed and easygoing as usual.

Recently, Prabowo’s brother Hashim Djojohadikusumo was quoted by Reuters as saying that “we will use our power to investigate and to obstruct,” promising to dig dirt on Joko during his time as mayor of Solo and governor of Jakarta — although Hashim later denied using the word “obstruct” and accused the Indonesian media of misquoting him.

Joko responded to this, when speaking to the press, by saying, “Does my face look like I’m worried? It doesn’t, does it? So we do nothing to anticipate this obstructing thing. I only want to hear people and be close with people.”

Joko does still look like his usual self despite a lot of homework left by his predecessor, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, and hurdle after hurdle he will surely face ahead.

 

Note 2: This article was originally published at Jakarta Globe on Oct. 20, 2014.

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Yudhoyono’s Decade of Peaks and Troughs

Media freedom and freedom of speech, political and economic stability, a health insurance scheme from the poor, Indonesia’s emerging international roles and its environmental commitment are among achievements largely attributed to former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s decade in power. While he began as a dark horse, winning Indonesia’s first direct presidential election in 2004, had his popularity continued to soar that he won re-election easily in 2009, Yudhyono’s second term in office had been marked with continually declining popularity, the public’s anger over his perceived indecisiveness and inability to protect minority rights, and was aggravated with the arrest of top officials of his Democratic Party in relations with high-profile graft cases. Yudhoyono and his party, in his last days in office, have fallen from grace. This article sums up his perceived failures in areas of economy and infrastructure development, politics and democracy.

 

Counting down the days until the end of his decade in office next week, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono picked 20 lucky winners among Indonesians on Twitter for a meet and greet with him in Yogyakarta on Thursday.

Through his Twitter account @SBYudhoyono, the departing president asked Indonesian “netizens” to share their views on his decade-long presidency, using the hashtag #KopdarPamitan (a farewell meet and greet).

The winners, not surprisingly, were picked among those who gave positive reviews. Reviews cited infrastructure development, international achievements and democracy, among other things, including one that complimented the president’s penchant for song writing.

But it is the hashtag #KopdarCelamitan — which mocks the outgoing president for “avariciously” asking people to sing him praises — that gained more popularity, making it into Indonesia’s trending topics on Twitter on Tuesday.

The outgoing president has continued to list his achievements during public speeches. However, many members of the public and critics alike think there are more notable failures, than achievements during his decade in power.

Siti Zuhro, a political expert with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, or LIPI, said the outgoing president’s declining popularity is evidenced through his Democratic Party’s plunging vote in the April 9 legislative elections.

“In 2004 and 2009, the public admired SBY,” Siti said, referring to Indonesia’s first and second direct presidential elections — both of which were won by Yudhoyono.

“But recently, his popularity has been declining drastically, because he is perceived as an indecisive leader, with a lack of sharpness in terms of [policy] execution.”

Economic bubble

Yudhoyono’s decade in power has been marked with political stability, which, along with reforms in several sectors like banking, has been hailed for attracting investment and driving economic growth.

In the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2008, when countries all over the world suffered growth slumps, Indonesia’s economy has managed to continue to expand. Indonesia became the world’s 10th largest economy earlier this year. Concurrently, Yudhoyono has been widely credited for Indonesia’s increasingly powerful role in global affairs.

“Since 2009, Indonesia’s gross domestic product growth has been the second fastest among G-20 member states [after China],” the president’s official website, presidenri.go.id, said in its report entitled: Reflections on 10 Years of Development and Five Year Projection.”

However, upon peaking in 2011, the country’s economy has since slowed down. Last year it expanded by only 5.78 percent, and the figure is expected to further decline this year to between 5.1 percent and 5.5 percent.

The trade deficit continues to expand, and the rupiah continues to depreciate against the US dollar. The yet-to-be-addressed burgeoning fuel subsidy has become an increasing threat to fiscal health — harming Indonesia’s status as one of the world’s fastest growing economies.

The Yudhoyono administration has boasted increasing the per-capita income of Indonesia’s middle class. Yet, the country’s Gini coefficient, which measures inequality among income distributions, has risen from 0.37 in 2012 to 0.41 last year. More … 

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Indonesia’s Presidential Debates 2014 — Summaries

Five years ago in 2009, I covered for The Jakarta Post three out of five election debates featuring presidential and or vice presidential candidates that for the first time were aired live on Indonesian TV channels. Three tickets vied for Indonesia’s presidency then, before it was won by incumbent Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. The debates were mostly lighthearted, with Yudhoyono and rival Jusuf Kalla occasionally shared jokes. The third candidate, Megawati Soekarnoputri, meanwhile, looked like she couldn’t take jokes at all. Other than that, there was no noteworthy differences in platforms they offered to Indonesian voters.

Five years later, ahead of the July 9, 2014 presidential election, I wrote for Jakarta Globe summaries of four out of five presidential election debates broadcast live on TV, this time featuring only two tickets: Joko Widodo-Jusuf Kalla vs Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa. My general impression of the four — in terms of debate performance (not the campaign platforms, those would require more than just a few words)– are as follows:

Joko, whom I generally took as a less than eloquent speaker, proved he was able to surpass expectations with well preparations (he’s the only candidate who said he had prepared himself prior to each debate session where he made an appearance). Kalla, probably thinking he had experience enough in such debates (he ran in Indonesia’s presidential races since 2004, when he was a running mate of Yudhoyono), did sound he was well-versed in many of the topics debated. He paid less attention to eloquence , though, which probably rendered many viewers unable to understand well his points. Prabowo, although didn’t disappoint at the beginning with eloquent and fiery speeches expected of him, visibly struggled to maintain his calm when responding to Kalla’s “sneaky” attacks, especially one concerning his alleged involvement in human rights abuse cases in the past. I considered Hatta the calmest and most eloquent speaker of the four, but he didn’t get much chance to talk, and he, too, was unable to maintain composure when Kalla again delivered his jabs.

Here are summaries of the four debates I wrote pieces on, two of which with contributions from colleagues of mine. I didn’t write on the second debate on economic development and social welfare because I was outside the town. Generally, I wish I had had more time to put more thoughts in the articles, but it was hard to write a 1,000 or more words article in two hours time — what with the debates concluding only near or even around 11 p.m., while we have a deadline to catch one.

Presidential candidate Joko Widodo, left, talks as running mate Jusuf Kalla, right, listens in the fifth and presidential debate in Jakarta on Saturday. Joko wore his trademark checkered shirt for the first time in the debate series. (Antara Photo/Prasetyo Utomo)

I. Stinging and Weaving in a Presidential Debate That Enthralled

The calm and collected start by former Army general Prabowo Subianto turned into a high-pitched speech and somewhat of a roar toward the end of the first televised debate of this year’s presidential election campaign, after Jusuf Kalla, the running mate to Joko Widodo, pressed the issue of Prabowo’s role in the abduction of pro-democracy activists in 1998.

Prabowo confidently answered the debate’s first question; he got to go first by moderator Zainal Arifin Mochtar, a lecturer at Yogyakarta’s Gadjah Mada University (UGM) and anti-corruption activist.

When asked what the most important issues were in the context of the theme of Monday’s debate — “Development of Democracy, Clean Government and Legal Certainty” — Prabowo said smoothly — albeit in rather highfalutin words — that the people of Indonesia needed political education in order to create “constructive democracy” for the “prosperity and welfare” of the nation.

He stumbled a bit on the second question, on corruption and human rights, and began to unravel by the third question, which was on the high cost of Indonesia’s elections.

By the fourth segment of the debate — when the two tickets got a chance to ask each other questions — he seemed to lose his cool when Kalla tagged him over his role in the abductions and alleged involvement in the shooting deaths of student activists during the heady days of 1998, when he served as commander of the powerful Army Strategic Reserves.

“I know the direction [of your question]. You’re [accusing me] of not protecting human rights,” Prabowo said, his tone audibly higher and his usually mellow voice straining at a higher pitch. “You don’t understand, we [military members] were stationed in difficult places, and we often had to take actions to protect the Indonesian people at large. More… 

 

III. Indonesian Candidates Debate Defense, Foreign Affairs

In the third televised presidential debate on Sunday night former Army general Prabowo Subianto toned down his previous aggressive stance on international affairs, while rival Joko Widodo indicated that he could show more teeth when required — including when it comes to border disputes and bilateral tensions with Australia.

Prabowo answered questions related to the topic, “International Politics and National Resilience,” rather easily — in line with predictions by some observers who believed he was better equipped on the issues compared with the Jakarta governor.

But he still got stuck on rhetoric, and repeated that Indonesia needed to prevent “leakages” of its natural resources to other countries — which he had mentioned in the previous two debates.
In the debate, which was moderated by Hikmahanto Juwana, a professor of international law at the University of Indonesia, Prabowo’s favorite quotes included “One thousand friends are not enough, one enemy is more than enough.”

Prabowo repeated this at least three times to emphasize his preference for peace and diplomacy over armed conflict. “I want to put first the friendship, the good-neighbor diplomacy. We will always put first politeness, tolerance with other nations — in line with the character of our nation. Through understanding each other, we will achieve good friendship,” Prabowo said in a soft-spoken speech contrary to some observers and outsiders’ views that he would take a firm stance against other nations having conflicting interests with Indonesia.

Joko, meanwhile, who has often been thought of being more conciliatory toward foreigners — at least compared with Prabowo, underlined that he would not be a toothless leader. When asked about border disputes, for example, Joko said, “If it’s clear that the [disputed area] belongs to us, of course we will make a fuss about that. Don’t think I can’t be stern. I think sternness is daring to make decisions, daring to take action. As a leader of the nation I will take risks. If they try to grab our land, I’ll do anything to [prevent] that.”

He similarly showed a firm stance on the issue of Indonesia’s sour relations with Australia – saying it was not only distrust. “This is also a problem of dignity. I think we’ve been deemed a weak nation,” Joko said. “That’s why the future president must work on these honor and dignity issues. We should never let others belittle and denigrate us because they think we’re weak and powerless.” More… 

 

IV. Hatta Outshines Kalla in Vice Presidential Debate

Hatta Rajasa, the former chief economics minister, grabbed the spotlight in a lively debate on Sunday night with rival vice presidential candidate Jusuf Kalla, after a largely forgettable performance in the first debate nearly three weeks earlier.

Hatta came out of the blocks strong in the fourth debate, which centered on human resource development and science and technology, appearing to have prepared well for the debate and presenting his arguments and supporting statistics in a smooth and composed manner.

He also appeared more knowledgeable about the topics under discussion, having previously served as the minister for science and technology.

He noted that annual spending on research and development amounted to just 0.1 percent of Indonesia’s gross domestic product, or about $930 million, and promised to nearly double it by an additional Rp 10 trillion, or $831 million.

“We will develop innovative centers using a triple helix approach,” Hatta said, referring to his and presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto’s program for increasing funding for innovation by engaging the private sector.

“First, the government will increase its own research budget. Second, the government will provide incentives for companies involved in research development. And third, the government will issue a regulation to accelerate entrepreneurship programs.”

Hatta gave fairly practical and systematic explanations about his team’s platforms on the issues discussed, in stark contrast to Prabowo, who spent the previous debates harping on a vague “budget leak.”

Kalla, meanwhile, also displayed his vast knowledge of the various topics — having served as President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s vice president from 2004 to 2009 and a couple of ministerial posts before that — but gave a less eloquent performance, after winning plaudits from the first debate in which he outshone his presidential candidate, Joko Widodo, by sparring directly with Prabowo on the latter’s human rights record.

While he still managed the old trademark witty questions, they were not as biting, and Hatta handled them well, even countering with his own jabs at Kalla’s achievements while in office. More… 

 

V. Confident Joko Shows True Colors in Final Presidential Debate

Joko Widodo showed more confidence, eloquently explaining his food, energy and environment platforms in generally well-structured statements while effectively throwing jabs here and there at the rival ticket during the final televised debate ahead of Wednesday’s presidential election.

Joko had generally been considered a rather ineffective speaker during the series of debates — he had made good, practical points based on his campaign platform during three out of four previous sessions where he had made an appearance, but had been criticized for lacking the ability to present his views convincingly. His running mate Jusuf Kalla and rival, former Army general Prabowo Subianto, have been dubbed better speakers.

On Saturday night, however, Joko showed he had improved — as the two presidential candidates and their running mates appeared for the last time in a televised debate, just four days before Indonesians go to poll stations on Wednesday. It was also the first time that Joko wore his trademark checkered shirt, giving up the batik shirt and suit and tie in three previous outings.

Asked how to improve the management of Indonesia’s oil and gas sector, for example, Joko elaborated on his strategies in four concise points: oil-to-gas conversion; development of gas infrastructure; reducing energy consumption through improvement of public transport in big cities; and use of degraded lands and offer of incentives to support the growth of the biofuel industry.

“Energy issues are also related to traffic jams,” the Jakarta governor said, connecting Indonesia’s subsidy problems to massive use of private cars, which contribute to Jakarta’s traffic woes. “It is thus important to do our best to improve public transport in big cities across Indonesia. This is very crucial to ensure efficient energy use.” More… 

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