Candidates dialog receives cool response
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
The much-awaited dialog involving the presidential candidates and their running mates failed to draw much public interest on Tuesday, with less than half of the around 600 seats available being occupied by the supporters of the two camps.
The limited time allocated to the panelists to ask questions and for the candidates to answer left the audience and television viewers with more questions than answers as to how the candidates would run the country if elected.
Most of the time, moderator Natalia Soebagyo was forced to stop either the panelists or the presidential candidates and their running mates due to the limited time allowed for each question and answer.
The two pairs of candidates -- Megawati Soekarnoputri and running mate Hasyim Muzadi, and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and partner Jusuf Kalla -- were given three minutes each to explain their programs on security, political affairs, human rights and local autonomy issues.
The Megawati-Hasyim duo appeared first at 8 p.m., with the panelists being sociologist Daniel Sparringa of Air Langga University in Surabaya, law expert Harkristuti Harkrisnowo of the University of Indonesia (UI), and political analysts Ikrar Nusa Bakti of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) and Maswardi Rauf of UI.
Susilo and Kalla came on at 9 p.m., with the panelists this time being analysts Dewi Fortuna Anwar and Fachry Ali, law expert Romli Atmasasmita and sociologist Bambang Soemantri.
While the panelists were initially chosen by the General Elections Commission (KPU), the final say rested with the candidates.
Appeared uneasy before the panelists, Megawati had to ask panelists to repeat their questions several times, and had to rush to answer the questions as the moderator repeatedly reminded her that time was running out.
Her running mate, Hasyim, showed more confidence in answering the questions and won applause from the audience.
Meanwhile, Susilo and Kalla benefited from coming second as both the panelists and moderator appeared to have learned from the first session how to make more effective use of the one-hour time period allowed.
Both Susilo and Kalla were clearly better prepared than Megawati and Hasyim in answering the questions of the panelists.
The audience was mostly made up of politicians, pollsters, political analysts and journalists from various media outlets.
Compared to the debate held by the KPU before the first round of the presidential election last July 5, the dialog was more relaxed as none of the candidates felt "offended" by the moderator or panelists.
Speaking for Megawati's camp, Pramono Anung Wibowo of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI-P) said he was quite happy with the dialog and considered it to have been more effective than the previous dialog.
"For us, the dialog this time around was more useful in allowing us to articulate our views than it was the first time around," he said.
"The only problem was the lack of time. How can we explain our program in only one hour," Pramono said after the dialog.
He further contended that should Megawati appear to be hesitant in answering the questions, it was simply because she had made no special preparations for the dialog.
Meanwhile, Daniel Sparringa said after the dialog that it would do little to influence voter choices as most had already made up their minds.
He also said that the voters would have preferred to see the candidates going face to face during the same session and answering the same questions.