Erwida Maulia & Josua Gantan, Jakarta – Joko Widodo showed more confidence, eloquently explaining his food, energy and environment platforms in generally well-structured statements while effectively throwing jabs here and there at the rival ticket during the final televised debate ahead of Wednesday's presidential election.

Joko had generally been considered a rather ineffective speaker during the series of debates – he had made good, practical points based on his campaign platform during three out of four previous sessions where he had made an appearance, but had been criticized for lacking the ability to present his views convincingly. His running mate Jusuf Kalla and rival, former Army general Prabowo Subianto, have been dubbed better speakers.

On Saturday night, however, Joko showed he had improved – as the two presidential candidates and their running mates appeared for the last time in a televised debate, just four days before Indonesians go to poll stations on Wednesday. It was also the first time that Joko wore his trademark checkered shirt, giving up the batik shirt and suit and tie in three previous outings.

Asked how to improve the management of Indonesia's oil and gas sector, for example, Joko elaborated on his strategies in four concise points: oil-to-gas conversion; development of gas infrastructure; reducing energy consumption through improvement of public transport in big cities; and use of degraded lands and offer of incentives to support the growth of the biofuel industry.

"Energy issues are also related to traffic jams," the Jakarta governor said, connecting Indonesia's subsidy problems to massive use of private cars, which contribute to Jakarta's traffic woes. "It is thus important to do our best to improve public transport in big cities across Indonesia. This is very crucial to ensure efficient energy use."

Joko also proved that he had learned how to attack his rivals' track records and campaign platform effectively – he maintained a calm look and tone as he smoothly inserted praise for his running mate, Kalla, and criticism of the rival ticket – such as when he asked Prabowo's running mate, former chief economic minister Hatta Rajasa, about Indonesia's rising rice imports during the latter's term in office, while attacking Prabowo himself.

"We reached self-sufficiency in rice production in 2008-09," Joko said – the period happens to coincide with Kalla's last two years in office as the vice president. "But in 2012 we imported up to 2.7 million tons of rice. That's enormous. Pak Hatta, you were the coordinating minister for the economy, what went wrong? And Pak Prabowo, as the chairman of the HKTI [Indonesian Farmers Association], what have you done?" he added.

Hatta argued imports had only been done with an eye to extreme weather conditions, while Prabowo hit back, saying Kalla once criticized him for his firm stance against rice imports.

On the offense

While the first half of the two-hour debate – starting around 9 p.m. on Saturday – was rather monotone, with both tickets presenting their views and planned programs in response to the moderator's inquiries, the second half took a more lively turn when Joko immediately used the chance to attack his rivals with questions.

Aside from the aforementioned attacks, he also threw a jab at the Prabowo-Hatta camp's campaign platform – deemed too full of big promises, many people, especially their opponents, have questioned how they would ever turn those plans into reality.

"What matters is implementation. Many people talk big about platforms, discourses and plans, but it's easy to want this and that. However, can those plans be implemented, can they be decided? How's the management and supervision to ensure real benefits for people?" Joko said.

Kalla, who was lauded for his direct attack on Prabowo's questionable human rights records in the first debate, followed suit with his own jabs at especially Hatta, criticizing some economic policies of the current government – which Hatta has been a part of until earlier this year, when he joined Prabowo's presidential bid.

"[Indonesia's] oil productivity has continued to decline, the energy subsidy is continually up – we recorded the biggest subsidy and deficits in our history during the past few years," Kalla said, obviously attacking Hatta and also President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who recently threw his support behind Prabowo through the president's Democratic Party.

Both Hatta and Prabowo hit back – such as when Hatta said Indonesia's oil production had been declining from 1 million barrels per day to 900,000 barrels per day near the end of Kalla's term in office in 2009 – but either was lacking Joko and Kalla's calmness and effective, eloquently delivered jabs.

Kalla also managed to insert a slur on corruption charges implicating a string of politicians from party members of the coalition supporting the Prabowo-Hatta camp in the middle of his speech.

"[Your camp] has your own oil, cattle, hajj and Koran at the KPK [Corruption Eradication Commission]," Kalla said, referring to last year's conviction of Luthfi Hasaan Ishaq, the former president of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), over a beef graft scandal, and the naming of United Development Party (PPP) chairman Suryadharma Ali as a suspect in a hajj graft case a few months ago – among other cases.

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/confident-joko-shows-true-colors-final-presidential-debate/