Jakarta – Presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto continued to defend his performance as defense minister during his campaign trail this week after he was cornered during the third election debate by his rivals.

Prabowo in particular focused on the remark of presidential candidate Anies Baswedan where he gave him a score of "11 out of 100" for his performance as a minister.

"Even though someone gave [me] a score of 11 out of 100, what matters is the rating you [the people] give me," Prabowo said in a campaign event in Bengkulu city, Bengkulu, on Thursday, as quoted by CNN Indonesia.

During the third election debate on Jan. 7 with a focus on foreign affairs, defense and security, Anies, as well as presidential candidate Ganjar Pranowo, criticized the former military general on the state of the Defense Ministry.Aside from offering his low-performance rating, Anies bashed the ministry's procurement of used defense equipment. The former Jakarta governor also raised the issue of the welfare of Indonesian Military (TNI) personnel, who he said received low salaries and had no housing provision.

Ganjar gave a score of "four out of 10" for Prabowo's performance, in an apparent extension of his past remarks of giving President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's administration a score of five for poor law enforcement performance. The former Central Java governor also cited various international defense indexes that showed Indonesia appeared weaker than other countries.

"Wherever I go, and all the messages I receive through social media, show that the Indonesian people, the hearts of the Indonesian people [...] all the people of Indonesia are with us," Prabowo told his supporters in Bengkulu.

Previously, while speaking in front of his campaign volunteers in Pekanbaru, Riau, on Tuesday, Prabowo brushed off the 11-out-of-100 score from Anies, saying that he chose not to care about the evaluation as he had been defending the country since he was young.

Experts have mixed responses to Prabowo's remarks in the third debate, saying that Prabowo could have performed better. Some have said that Prabowo, even in a good position to counter the attacks, became so aggrieved that he failed to provide strong arguments to defend himself.

Source: https://www.thejakartapost.com/indonesia/2024/01/12/people-are-with-us-claims-prabowo.htm