The much-awaited first presidential debate finally took place on Thursday evening, pitting incumbent President Joko Widodo and his running mate Ma’ruf Amin against Prabowo Subianto and his running mate Sandiaga Uno.
The topics covered in last night’s debate were human rights, law, corruption, and terrorism. As we predicted, it was a largely bland affair, as if the candidates and moderators were playing it safe. Many netizens — or warganet, as the moderators so cringely put it last night — said they were more looking forward to seeing memes about the debate rather than the debate itself.
In that spirit, here’s a collection of our favorite memes based on the most talked about moments from the debate.
Central Java bigger than Malaysia?
Prabowo mentioned that some Indonesian governors ought to be paid more considering the size of their provinces, using the example of Central Java, which he asserted to be larger than Malaysia.
That claim is clearly false. Official data shows that Central Java measures 32,544.12 square kilometer while Malaysia measures 330,323 square kilometer.
Cue a K-pop inspired reaction meme featuring a picture of Got7’s Jackson Wang.
Prabowo: "bagaimana bisa gubernur jawa tengah yang areanya lebih besar dari Malaysia gajinya hanya 8 juta?"#DebatPilpres2019 pic.twitter.com/arGXbqv6sg
— shadowless (@mainvocalstan) January 17, 2019
Prabowo: How could the salary of the Governor of Central Java, which is larger than Malaysia, be only Rp8 million (around $564)?
Prabowo’s dance and back rub from Sandi
When Ira Koesno, one of the debate moderators, initially didn’t allow Prabowo to respond to Jokowi’s question about the six convicted corruptors who are running as legislative candidates for his party, Gerindra, the former general busted out a few dance moves in frustration. As if the moment wasn’t absurd enough, Sandi then gave his running mate a back rub.
Prabowo menunjukkan gestur joget kecil di atas panggung sembari tersenyum saat debat Pilpres 2019 tadi malam (17/1)
Sandiaga, yang berada di sebelahnya, merangkul dan melakukan gerakan memijit-mijit bahu Prabowo. Sejumlah tamu tertawa melihat peristiwa ini. #iNews pic.twitter.com/IZQNZXZvma— SeputariNewsRCTI (@SeputariNews) January 18, 2019
Here is all of that in GIF form, in case you need it for future meme-ification
https://twitter.com/BanyuSadewa/status/1085922594807664640
“The corruption wasn’t that big”
When Prabowo was eventually allowed to answer the question above, he committed what was probably the biggest gaffe of the night when he replied, “Maybe the corruption wasn’t that big?” in trying to justify Gerindra’s corruption convict cadres.
Of course, Prabowo’s statement incited jeers from netizens, many in meme form:
https://twitter.com/veautifulguk/status/1085922422828613632
There’s also this hilarious meme combining Prabowo dancing with his corruption faux pas.
https://twitter.com/AancooLs/status/1085932486197006337
The Silence of Ma’ruf
Jokowi’s running mate, Ma’ruf Amin, was a man of few words during last night’s debate. He later explained that, as an incumbent, Jokowi should be the more dominant of the two during the debate.
“If the president was explaining something, I only needed to agree and support it, so we wouldn’t race each other’s sentences like saur manuk (birds chirping at each other),” Ma’ruf said today, as quoted by CNN Indonesia.
But his silence sparked probably the best memes of the night.
https://twitter.com/rizkymerdietio/status/1085912777774981121
Jokowi: Maybe Pak Kyai would like to add something. Meanwhile, Pak Kyai…
Jokowi: The one who understands the material, did the powerpoint, answered the questions during the presentation.
Ma’ruf: The one who put his name on the project.
Jokowi’s epic burn about Ratna Sarumpaet’s plastic surgery
It didn’t take long for Jokowi to bring up Ratna Sarumpaet, Prabowo’s former campaigner who duped him and many across the nation by claiming to have been assaulted by strangers, only for police to quickly reveal that her “injuries” were actually the side effects of a recent plastic surgery procedure she underwent.
“Your spokesperson said she was beaten up, her face was battered and then your team held a press conference. And then what happened? Turned out she had plastic surgery,” Jokowi said to Prabowo.
A user on Twitter described the moment by using this GIF of Chiitan, a famous otter mascot from Japan known for her crazy stunts.
https://twitter.com/LayXing09/status/1085897597712121856
When Pak Jokowi took a jab with “[Ratna Sarumpaet’s] plastic surgery”
Because there were so many ridiculous quotes and moments during the debate, another Twitter user imagined if former Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama appeared from behind the stage to dance and laugh at all of the candidates.
https://twitter.com/msofyan/status/1085909615047393283
Whatever your opinion about last night’s debate, you may want to follow Japanese tidying guru Marie Kondo’s advice in deciding your pick for the election.
Does this candidate spark joy?
— Clara Siagian (see-ya-ghee-un) (@clarasiagian) January 17, 2019
