TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - In response upon Jokowi’s rather aggressive question on the issue of land ownership, Prabowo Subianto casually considered it as a normal thing that happens during a debate, let alone presidential debate.

“That’s okay, it’s not unusual. It wouldn’t be lively without attacks would it, and you folks would likely hate that right?” said Prabowo yesterday when asked about one of the debate’s memorable moments right after the event ended.

He said that there are questions in a debate that needs to be clarified but he also maintained himself and Jokowi have a good relationship despite under tense political atmosphere.

“Being competitive is normal. Especially your generation, you must see competition as a good thing. Being hard on each other in a debate but become friends again after the debate ends. This is our pursuit to elevate democracy,” Prabowo explained.

During a segment in Sunday’s debate, incumbent presidential candidate Joko “Jokowi” Widodo mentioned about the existence of a vast land owned by Prabowo located in East Kalimantan and Aceh. Jokowi’s attack was a response to Prabowo’s answer on land concessions upon realizing the government’s agrarian reform program.

“The 2.6 million hectare handouts are to transform it into productive assets. We are not handing it out to major companies. I know personally that Pak Prabowo owns a vast 220,000-hectare piece of land in East Kalimantan and 120 hectares in Central Aceh. I just want to mention that these sorts of handouts are not practiced under my administration,” said Jokowi.

ANTARA