REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - A month before Indonesia's presidential election, the two candidates traded barbs in their first televised debate on Monday, with Jakarta Governor Joko "Jokowi" Widodo seen faring better than former special forces general Prabowo Subianto.
The two candidates are close in opinion polls ahead of the July 9 election, although Jokowi holds the edge. Up to 40 percent of the voters are undecided, one survey has said.
The winner will lead the world's fourth-most populous nation for the next five years. Both have promised market-friendly policies to revive growth in Southeast Asia's largest economy, which fell to the lowest in four years in the first quarter.
Jokowi appeared to have scored more points in the debate, but no killer blows, analysts said after the two-hour long discussion, in which the two candidates were accompanied by their vice presidential running mates. Prabowo appeared to be on the defensive about his human rights record, they said.
"I don't think there were any knockout blows," said Paul Rowland, a Jakarta-based political analyst. "I think Jokowi did what he needed to do and that was to perform confidently in a very public venue."
Prabowo, who was formerly married to a daughter of authoritarian leader Suharto, relies on his strongman and nationalistic image to appeal to voters weary of what is perceived to be indecisive leadership under current President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is due to leave office in October.
"We want to be a nation that is independent, that is productive. We don't want to just be a market for others," said Prabowo, wearing a white dress shirt and a traditional Indonesian cap. "We want to stand on our own feet."
Although relatively cordial, the debate turned tense when Jusuf Kalla, Jokowi's vice presidential candidate, asked Prabowo to address human rights in Indonesia, which the ex-general took as a stab at him personally.
"We had to do what was necessary to ensure the safety of the larger Indonesian society," Prabowo said, raising his voice. "Mr. Kalla, I am responsible and my conscience is clear. I am the strongest defender of human rights in this republic. I have no doubts."
Prabowo was discharged from service by a military council for misinterpreting orders in the abduction of anti-Suharto activists, and has been accused of instigating riots that killed hundreds of people just before Suharto's downfall in 1998.
He denies any wrongdoing and has never been charged.
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