REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi) expressed hope that presidential candidates would come up with concrete offers to solve the country's environmental problems. Walhi also expected the two candidates address the impacts of climate change during the upcoming presidential election debate.

"They should have more concrete offers concerning environmental issues, for instance, the ecological disaster that is getting worse from year to year," Yuyun Harmono, the campaign manager on climate justice of Walhi, stated here, Thursday.

Human activities are among the major factors that induce ecological disaster, as they damage the environment and trigger climate change, he pointed out. The human activities are also related to economic development so far, he added.

An economic paradigm exploits natural resources, harms the environment, and triggers ecological disaster, as nature reacts to such a paradigm, he added.

Indonesia will organize simultaneous legislative and presidential elections on April 17, 2019, across the country. Incumbent Joko Widodo (Jokowi) and presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto will meet in the second presidential election debate on February 17, 2019, featuring five themes: energy, the environment, infrastructure, food, and natural resources.

The first debate was organized on January 17, 2019, based on the themes: law, human rights, terrorism, and corruption. Both candidates' camps expressed satisfaction at the performances of Jokowi and Prabowo respectively during the first debate.

Several people on social media, however, expressed disappointment regarding the first debate, as they found it to be lackluster and blamed it on the questions revealed in advance by the General Election Commission (KPU) to the candidates prior to the debate.

"This is what happened if the questions are already given to the candidates," Feri Amsari, the director of the Constitution Study Center of the University of Andalas, West Sumatra, stated.

For the second debate, the KPU has promised to not give them questions in advance.

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