Amien in one-horse debate race

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta

Amien Rais was the only presidential candidate on Wednesday to answer the challenge to attend a debate organized by students at the University of Indonesia in Depok.

Arriving at the university at about 2 p.m., Amien only had a few minutes to rest as more than 1,000 students and lecturers were impatient to see the debate begin.

Most of the students, some from other universities across the country, had been waiting for almost three hours. To their disappointment, however, the other four presidential candidates failed to show up.

Ahmad Nur Hidayat, who heads the University of Indonesia's Student Executive Body, had told the floor that the organizing committee was only expecting Amien, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Hamzah Haz to participate in the debate.

The campaign team of incumbent President Megawati Soekarnoputri simply rejected the students' invitation, while Wiranto's team told the organizing committee they preferred to campaign across the country rather than attend the debate.

"We do not know why Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Hamzah Haz did not show up. They promised last night to come. They missed the opportunity to present their programs to the students, who are eager to criticize their visions and missions," he said.

Susilo was the keynote speaker at a seminar on Wednesday attended by high-profile businesspeople, while Wiranto held a meeting with a delegate from the Chinese Chamber of Commerce. Hamzah, who is the current Vice President, was in the Central Java town of Surakarta to meet with a cleric, while Megawati was in Surabaya, where she visited a market for about 10 minutes.

A student at the University of Indonesia's School of Law, Fedra Rossi, questioned the courage of the absent candidates.

"What are they afraid of? We only want to hear about their programs because they do not provide sufficient information during the campaign. Do they think we want to buy a cat in a sack?" she told The Jakarta Post.

Dozens of Susilo supporters from the SBY Fan Club joined the crowd at the campus, but left after they learned that Susilo would not be attending the debate.

Prior to the debate, several young men handed out mementos bearing the pictures of Wiranto and his running mate Solahuddin Wahid.

Unlike televised presidential debates, the event on Wednesday allowed audience members to question the candidate on any topic of their choosing.

Political analyst Andi Mallarangeng, who hosted the event, let students and lecturers, including University of Indonesia Rector Usman Chatib Warsa, bombard Amien with questions on various topics, including corruption eradication, education, law enforcement and Indonesia's ties with the International Monetary Fund.

In the middle of the question and answer session, a student, Fajar, criticized Amien for talking about law enforcement while a councillor representing his National Mandate Party (PAN) in Padang, West Sumatra, was in jail for graft.

"How can you say that you will be able to uphold the law if you did nothing about your own people?" said Fajar to the cheers of the crowd.

Amien appeared a bit flustered but was able to respond. "Indeed, the case in Padang is exceptional. It does not happen in other parts of the country. Let us eradicate corruption together."

About 15 minutes later, with the event coming to an end, Amien returned to the student's criticism.

"Mas, for your information, we have dismissed all PAN councillors implicated in the case. We will not tolerate it," he said.

Box story

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As a presidential candidate, Amien Rais is entitled to special protection from the state, and the candidate and his entourage must have been fairly confident that they did not have to worry about petty criminals.

However, their confidence was shattered on Wednesday and Amien may want to rethink his security precautions.

A police subprecinct chief, nine journalists and Amien's campaign deputy manager, Dien Syamsuddin, all had their cellular phones stolen while accompanying the candidate on a packed commuter train from Manggarai station in South Jakarta to the University of Indonesia campus in Depok for a debate, detik.com news portal reported.

Dien kept close to Amien's side during the trip, as the candidate made his way from car to car to talk with passengers. Also accompanying Amien were several police officers.

Most commuter trains are notoriously overcrowded and pickpockets and sexual harassment are commonplace.

A cameramen who lost his cellular phone while taking pictures of Amien complained to the chief of the Tebet Police subprecinct, Adj. Comr. Budiono, who was accompanying Amien's entourage.

To the journalist's surprise, Budiono replied, "Well, it did not happen only to you. I just lost my cellular phone as well." -- The Jakarta Post