Smaga English Championship VIII 2019, NEWS TEXT PRELIMINARY ROUND

TEXT 1 POLITIC

Presidential Election Debate in Public Spotlight

Voters have expressed mixed responses over the General Elections Commission’s (KPU) decision to provide presidential candidate pairs the list of questions before the first election debate.

While the KPU and two rival camps have decided to give the policy a go, some voters have argued that it will hinder them from assessing the real quality of the candidates during the election debates.

Desta, a 34-year-old graphic designer, said he wanted to watch the debates to gain a better understanding over the candidates. He especially wanted to learn about the candidates’ stances on certain issues before voting day in April.

However, he preferred that the candidates did not know the questions beforehand, so that their answers would be more genuine.

“The list of questions may be given to prevent both camps from attacking each other during the debate, but no one can actually guarantee that such a thing will happen,” Desta said on Tuesday.

Not all voters thought it was a bad idea to hand over the list of questions to the candidates before the actual debate takes place. The debate might turn into a war of facts and data, which can be a good thing.

The first election debate, slated for January 17, at Bidakara Hotel in South Jakarta, will cover law, human rights, corruption and terrorism.

Six prominent panelists involved in preparing the questions include National Commission on Human Rights chairman Ahmad Taufik Damanik, former Supreme Court chief justice Bagir Manan and international law expert Hikmahanto Juwana.

The debate will be divided into six segments, in which the second to fifth segments will cover questions and answers. Candidates will present their vision in the first and provide closing statements in the sixth segment, KPU chairman Arief Budiman said.

In the second and third segments, the election contenders will answer questions from the panelists, which will be given randomly from the list of questions given to the candidates several days before the debate. There will be five questions in each segment.

TEXT 2 POLITIC

Jokowi, Prabowo Campaigns Highlight Sharia-Based Economy

Presidential hopeful Prabowo Subianto and running mate Sandiaga Uno were on the campaign trail with visits to different pesantren (Islamic boarding school) over the weekend. 

During his visit to the Sidogiri pesantren in Pasuruan, East Java, on Saturday, Sandiaga was clad in a white shirt, green sarong and black peci, similar to the garb that of rival vice presidential candidate and Muslim cleric Ma’ruf Amin.  

At the pesantren, Sandiaga repeated the Prabowo-Sandiaga campaign’s economic message, saying that santri (pesantren students) are the backbone of the country's economy and that they should become entrepreneurs, or what he referred to as “santripreneurs”.

The message, however, is not authentic as it also has been voiced by Ma’ruf, who runs alongside incumbent President Joko Widodo. The cleric said he wanted to focus on the “Muslim economy”.

Ma’ruf previously said that he wanted to establish a “new wave” in the economy based on sharia.  He said, “I’m certain that one of the movers of the Indonesian economy is the Muslim economy. An economy that can empower people.”

Prabowo, at the same time visited the As Syafi'iyah Pulo Air pesantren in Sukabumi, West Java, on Sunday, and also reiterated his focus on the economy, saying that he would do his best to eradicate poverty if he won the election. “I feel the support of people in Sukabumi is very strong and this gives me hope that I will win,” he said at the pesantren, as quoted by radarsukabumi.com. 

Despite having the support of several conservative Islamic groups such as the National Movement to Safeguard Fatwas (GNPF), a recent survey conducted by Indikator Politik Indonesia found that respondents considered the Prabowo-Sandiaga ticket to be less pious than its rival. 

Around 76 percent of the respondents considered President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to be religious and pious, while only 58 percent said Prabowo was religious and pious. Eighty-two percent of respondents said Ma’ruf was religious and pious, while 63 percent said the same for Prabowo's running mate, Sandiaga Uno.

TEXT 3 SOCIO-CULTURAL

 

Corruption-Scarred Indonesian Football Grapples With New Match-Fix Scandal

Indonesian football's long-running struggle against corruption has been reignited with authorities promising a new crackdown after a senior official was caught trying to bribe a coach, the latest scandal in a league scarred by mismanagement and deadly hooliganism.

But, dogged by years of match-fixing, violence and corruption rife at all levels of the game, analysts say the Southeast Asian country needs to do more than "lip service" to tackle the endemic problems.

Earlier this month an executive member of the Football Association of Indonesia (PSSI) resigned after a popular television talk show broadcast a recording of him offering the coach of Madura FC a bribe to throw a second division game.

Hidayat, who like many Indonesians only uses one name, has been handed a three-year ban from football and fined by a PSSI disciplinary committee.

"Match-fixing exists everywhere, in league 1, 2 and 3. The problem is that the match-fixing issue has never been solved and (perpetrators) punished properly," football analyst Akmal Marhali told AFP.

The PSSI announced the establishment of a special task force to address allegations of match-fixing following the scandal, promising firm action against cheats.

But critics like Marhali say there needs to be more than just "lip service" to solve a problem that so far seems to be out of the grasp of Indonesian authorities. Perpetrators feel like they have impunity because there is no law enforcement.

Allegations of match-fixing have swirled around Indonesian football for decades. Indonesian defender Mursyid Effendi was given a lifetime ban by FIFA after scoring a deliberate own goal in a Tiger Cup match against Thailand in 1998.

Players, referees, and club administrators are all involved in rigging matches, he said, adding that although gambling is illegal in Indonesia, fans often bet through international gambling websites or local bookies.

PSSI Vice Chairman Joko Driyono said the association had a zero tolerance approach to match-fixing, and was ready to work with law enforcement authorities on the issue. No more cherry-picking, anyone who breaks the ethical code and integrity of football must be punished. 

TEXT 4 SOCIO-CULTURAL

Lion Air JT610 'Black box' Voice Recorder Recovered

The "black box" voice recorder from a Lion Air flight which crashed off the coast of Jakarta in October has been recovered, said officials on Monday.

All 189 people on board died when Flight JT610 fell into the sea shortly after taking off for the short journey to Pangkal Pinang. The pilot had asked air traffic control for permission to turn back to the airport but then contact was lost. Investigators say the plane had encountered technical problems.

The aircraft - a new Boeing 737 Max - broke into many pieces when it hit the water at high speed. The plane should not have been flying on the day it went down as it was not airworthy, Indonesian investigators have said.

The bright orange voice recorder was found at least 50 m (165 feet) from where the first black box - the plane's flight data recorder - was found last November. The voice recorder was found on Monday morning but was "broken into two pieces".

Indonesia's Navy spokesman Agung Nugroho told Reuters that the recorder was found 8m deep, under mud on the sea floor. Mr Nugroho said that a weak signal from the recorder had been detected "for several days".

Human remains had also been found near where the voice recorder was discovered, said Mr Nugroho. When the flight data recorder was found in November, officials said that it could take up to six months to analyse data.

Listening to the last conversations between the pilots and ground control on the CVR should help investigators finish piecing together what went wrong in the short flight. Flight JT610 took off from Jakarta at 06:20 on Monday. It crashed minutes after the pilot asked for permission to turn back to the airport.

The anti-stalling system repeatedly forced the plane's nose down, despite efforts by pilots to correct this, the findings suggest. Investigators have now said that the plane was not airworthy and should have been grounded. Some victims' families are suing Boeing over the accident.

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