Jokowi’s son Gibran pledges continuation of the Indonesian president’s policies in TV debate against other VP hopefuls

Meanwhile, Prof Mahfud, who currently sits in Mr Jokowi’s cabinet as coordinating minister for politics, legal and security, believed that corruption eradication is key to developing the nation’s economy. 

“We are rich in natural resources and have many great workforce. The problem is corruption is rampant… as a result, we are poor,” he said. 

“We must fight corruption.. So there will be economic prosperity as mandated by our Constitution.”

Meanwhile, Mr Muhaimin, who is riding on a political platform which promises a change to how the country is run, said in his opening remarks that the Anies-Muhaimin ticket would roll out a number of incentives to the needy and aspiring entrepreneurs.

“We want social aid to continue and increase so people will have more buying power and thus drive our economy,” he said, adding that if elected, 150 trillion rupiah (US$9.7 billion) will be earmarked to provide loans to small businesses.    

Mr Muhaimin said the pair will introduce more taxes for the rich and lower the ones for people of middle income. 

“Just imagine. 100 people in Indonesia have more wealth than 100 million Indonesians. This is injustice. We must fight it.”    

A BATTLE OF WITS

This is the second debate organised by the country’s General Election Commission (KPU).

The first debate was staged on Dec 12 which saw Mr Anies, Mr Prabowo and Mr Ganjar tackling the subject of law, human rights, corruption eradication, governance and democracy.

Although the Dec 22 debate only involved the VP running mates, it has been creating a lot of buzz with voters wondering how Mr Gibran, who has only been in the bureaucracy for two years, would stack up against his more experienced rivals.

Mr Muhaimin, 57, is a longtime politician who served as the minister for manpower between 2009 and 2014. Meanwhile, Prof Mahfud, 66, has decades of experience at the national stage, serving as cabinet members for two different presidents and chairing the Constitutional Court between 2008 and 2013.