Indonesia鈥檚 presidential candidates, incumbent President Joko Widodo and his challenger Prabowo Subianto, went head-to-head in the second presidential debate 鈥 the first without the VP candidates 鈥 last night as they were grilled on issues related to food, energy, natural resources, the environment and infrastructure.
While determining the winner of the debate is an entirely subjective affair, in true Indonesian netizen spirit, both candidate鈥檚 supporters quickly got to work by claiming victory for their side by putting together some dank memes.
In one trending hashtag from this morning, #JokowiBohongLagi (Jokowi lies again), Prabowo鈥檚 supporters pounced on the president when he made claims that don鈥檛 appear to be backed by facts, such as when he said there have been no forest fires in Indonesia for the past three years (there were actually 370 recorded forest fires in 2018 alone).
https://twitter.com/Amiriado1/status/1097272286615228416
The forgotten hero wkwkwkwkkwkwk He actually forgot about his own staged appearance after a forest fire. Strange!
Some also disproved of Jokowi鈥檚 claim that his administration has lowered corn imports to 180,000 tons in 2018, while official data showed the government actually lowered it to 731,000 tons.
https://twitter.com/AndiZoso/status/1097282043883319296
And then, still under the same hashtag, some went into conspiracy theory mode by accusing Jokowi of wearing an earpiece and using a pen-shaped communicator during the debate.
https://twitter.com/Adra_perantau/status/1097314368138620928
Conversely, Jokowi鈥檚 camp is claiming victory for the much-coveted millennials鈥 vote in what has probably become the most dissected moment of last night鈥檚 debate. At one point, Jokowi asked Prabowo what infrastructure he would like to build to support Indonesia鈥檚 unicorns (start-up companies valued at US$1 billion or more). Prabowo then clarified the term with Jokowi before answering, which many of the latter鈥檚 supporters took as his lack of understanding on the issue, giving birth to the popular hashtag #02GagapUnicorn (02 鈥 Prabowo鈥檚 designated candidate number 鈥 stutters about unicorns)
https://twitter.com/bethiiiiii/status/1097338843991134208
https://twitter.com/Kartikaribet/status/1097344958225309697
https://twitter.com/ulinyusron/status/1097164241205833728
Unicorn ambassador of Indonesia
The moment was so overplayed that the Gerindra party, which Prabowo chairs, defended its leader on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/Gerindra/status/1097157748058292224
It鈥檚 not that [Prabowo] doesn鈥檛 know what unicorns are, but Prabowo wanted to clarify the question, because [Jokowi鈥檚] pronunciation of the word unicorn wasn鈥檛 heard clearly.
Meanwhile, some of Jokowi鈥檚 facial reactions to Prabowo鈥檚 claims have become memes on their own:
https://twitter.com/marrezarifa/status/1097328102777057281
Jokowi after you give him false data
https://twitter.com/hematwoy/status/1097291953782190080
https://twitter.com/anisathasya00/status/1097167933669691392
https://twitter.com/KSAlrosanty/status/1097166855746146304
Who do you think won last night鈥檚 debate? More importantly, what memes would you use to describe the clash? Hit us with your best memes in the comments here or on our Facebook page.
