Jakarta (Antara Babel) - Agung Suprio, a political observer from the University of Indonesia (UI) opined that negative campaigns for the upcoming presidential election are reasonable because they will expose the weaknesses of a political rival.
"Negative campaigns are still classified as healthy ones because they are necessary to uncover the weaknesses of a political rival in front of the public, and will help the voters know about the track record of each presidential candidate," Agung stated on Friday.
He noted that the lesson learnt from negative campaigning is to publicly divulge whether a presidential or vice presidential candidate is really spotless during his/her term.
"In fact, negative campaign is different from black campaign, which is basically slanderous and primordial. Therefore, black campaign is forbidden, but negative campaign is acceptable," he emphasized.
In a bid to thwart black campaigning, Agung called on both the Prabowo and Jokowi camps to make a commitment to encourage their supporters to engage in healthy campaigning.
