Imitating Trump’s Strategy to Win Presidential Election

The messages he delivered seemed to imply that Indonesia would be destroyed if he is not the leader of the country. If pessimism and fear are successfully developed and affect the public, Qodari said the tendency to choose Prabowo as president could be greater than choosing Joko Widodo (Jokowi).

According to him, the campaign style as implemented by Trump is quite effective in gaining votes. It is also considered to have become a global trend. There is a possibility that Prabowo is inspired by Trump’s strategy, which succeeded in making him win the US presidential election. Trump used ‘Make America Great Again’ as his campaign slogan. According to Qodari, the free translation of Prabowo’s speech last March is to make Indonesia great again like ‘Asian Tiger.’

His prediction was proven in Prabowo’s speech six months later. During the LDII National Meeting last October, he shouted ‘Make Indonesia Great Again.’ However, Prabowo denied imitating Trump because he had mentioned this slogan in two books he wrote.

The Exposit Strategic Political Analyst Arif Susanto also agreed that Prabowo imitated Trump’s campaign style. This can be seen from the stance of his campaign team, which is not too dependent on the survey results from various polling institutions. Prabowo prefers to directly meet with his supporters through big meetings as Trump did. His campaign team also seemed to have directed the public not to trust polling institutions and are confident with its own survey results, which showed that Prabowo-Sandi’s electability is still higher than Jokowi-Ma’ruf.

Another similarity with Trump is that Prabowo often asked his supporters to make sure their names are included in the final voter list (DPT), while Trump often asked the US citizens to use their voting rights. Moreover, Prabowo also often criticized various problems that occurred during Jokowi’s administration, such as economic conditions, poverty, and employment.

If elected in the 2019 Presidential Election, Prabowo promised to be able to solve those problems. However, he never explained how he would solve it. According to Arif, this was also done by Trump when campaigning in the US Presidential Election. “If we look at the US presidential election, Trump deliberately ignored the question of how to solve problems,” he said.

Prabowo’s campaign is also inseparable from identity politics. His campaign often reminded the public to protect Indonesia so that the country is not controlled by foreign henchmen. Moreover, he had also used incorrect data for several times during his campaign. For example, Prabowo cited World Bank’s data that 99 percent of Indonesian people only have just enough money to live. A few days later, the World Bank denied it.

Another example is Prabowo stated that Indonesia’s poverty rate rose 50 percent during Jokowi’s leadership, even though data from the Statistics Indonesia (BPS) showed poverty tended to decline, even reaching a record low since 1998. Prabowo also said the current tax ratio was lower than in the New Order era.

Arif said Trump also used incorrect data during his campaign, including false data about 30 million illegal immigrants living in the US. Based on data from the US Department of Homeland Security, there were only 11.4 million in 2012. “It was a false data, but he [Trump] did not care,” Arif said.

According to Arif, Trump’s campaign strategy will be dangerous if it continues to be used in the 2019 Presidential Election. It will also worsen the quality of Indonesia’s democracy in the future. The strategy will also create greater polarization in the public, which in turn can lead to commotion.