Marlinda Oktavia Erwanti, Jakarta – Indo Barometer Executive Director M Qodari says that Greater Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) chairperson Prabowo Subianto is pursuing the same electoral strategy as Donald Trump used in the US presidential election.

Prabowo is playing off the lower and upper layers of society against each other and spreading a sense of pessimism.

“With Pak Prabowo, I see that he is currently pursuing the strategy used by Donald Trump in 2016 during the US presidential election (Pilpres). Donald Trump’s strategy was to play off the lower layers of society against the upper layers of society”, said Qodari following the release of a survey on the Central Java gubernatorial elections (Pilgub) at the fX Sudirman Harris Suites in South Jakarta on Tuesday April 3.

During the US presidential election Trump manipulated the issue of inequality in the US and tried to spread a sense of fear by saying that the US is under threat from foreign countries such as China, Islam and Mexican immigrant workers.

“I think it’s quite similar. So what’s being spread is pessimism, then fear. And if we look at the elections in America it turned out that ordinary Americans bought into this pessimism and fear and voted for Donald Trump”, he said.

“Trump’s slogan was ‘Make America Great Again’, right, make America great again. I think we can interpret Prabowo’s speeches as saying make Indonesia great again with me, an ‘Asian Tiger’”, added Qodari.

Qodari said that if Prabowo succeeds in promoting pessimism and fear and this has an influence on the pubic then it is certain that Prabowo will have a greater chance of being elected as president than the incumbent President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.

According to Qodari, the message being put forward by Prabowo implies that if he is not elected Indonesia will be destroyed.

“I’m not saying that this will be effective or not. In order to confirm this we must of course look at the evolution of public opinion and surveys. Because Pak Prabowo has only just launched this argument, right. What is clear is that I think anyone who believes that this assumption is correct will be very much inspired by the victory of Donald Trump”, he said.

Earlier this afternoon the Indo Barometer survey institute released the results of a survey about the influence of the 2018 East Java gubernatorial election on the 2019 presidential election. According to the survey Widodo is ahead with an electability of 56.5% compared with Prabowo at 22%. (tor/tor)

[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was Indo Barometer: Prabowo Jalankan Strategi Donald Trump.]

Source: https://news.detik.com/berita/d-3951624/indo-barometer-prabowo-jalankan-strategi-donald-trump