The performance of Indonesian vice-presidential candidate Gibran Rakabuming Raka who is also the son of incumbent President Joko Widodo – has come under fire for his seemingly rude antics during a live debate over the weekend.
It was a stark contrast to the buzz generated by him last month following a second debate organised by Indonesia’s General Election Commission (KPU) that saw Gibran stacking up against his more experienced rivals, with some netizens now calling the antics of the president’s eldest son as cringe.
The debate on Sunday (Jan 21) was the fourth in a series of five debates where presidential candidates and their running mates try to lure voters to the polling booth by promising what they could do should they be elected as Indonesia’s next leaders in the upcoming election on Feb 14.
Sunday’s debate saw the vice-presidential candidates discuss issues such as energy, carbon tax, environment as well as agrarian matters among others.
During the debate involving the three vice-presidential candidates, Gibran – who is the running mate of defence minister Prabowo Subianto made a “ducking†gesture and pretended to search for a lost item, in response to an answer that was given by his rival, Mahfud MD. Mahfud is running in the election alongside former Central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo.
The third vice presidential candidate is Muhaimin Iskandar a seasoned politician who has paired up with former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan.
Gibran had earlier quizzed Mahfud about how greenflation can be dealt with in the country. Greenflation refers to inflation caused by green initiatives.
In response, however, Mahfud spoke about the green economy instead of greenflation.
“I was looking for Prof Mahfud’s answer. I was looking for (the answer but) how come I couldn’t find (it)?†asked Gibran while making the “ducking†gesture.
“I asked about the issue of green inflation, but you explained the green economy instead.â€
Mahfud then claimed that Gibran was “(making) things up out of thin airâ€.
“If an academic asks a question like that, it’s not worth answering. There is no point in answering,†he retorted.
On social media platform X, a post featuring videos of the interaction gained over 2.5 million views in less than a day.
