Much like the American presidential election, Indonesia's presidential candidates also engage in a number of public debates.

This allows key issues to be brought up and discussed before the voters.

The Indonesian general election will be held on April 17, 2019.

When was foreign policy debate held

On March 31, incumbent President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and his challenger Prabowo Subianto debated in the capital of Jakarta the defence and foreign policy of Indonesia.

Defence spending

According to Bloomberg, former general Prabowo zoomed in on Indonesia's defence budget.

Indonesia currently spends about 0.8 percent of GDP on defence.

But Prabowo said this was relatively small, and cited Singapore, which spends 3.3 percent of GDP on defence.

Jokowi did not quibble over the numbers, but said that due to sluggish growth and a high budget deficit, he decided to invest in Indonesia's defence industry instead.

Due to this policy, Indonesia managed to develop its own medium tank with a joint Turkish and Belgian consortium, and its own submarine, with help from South Korea.

Foreign investment, not control

Prabowo also attacked Jokowi for allowing "foreign entities" to take ownership of Indonesian assets.

He also criticised foreign ownership of investments, and blamed Jokowi for rising debt and a weak currency.

Prabowo repeated one of his campaign trail pledges to reduce dependence on foreign countries, particularly in the matter of food supplies.

He said:

"Indonesia is not that respected abroad, because they know that Indonesia has a mounting debt, weak exchange rate, and we even import food. We are an agrarian country that imports food, that’s extraordinary."

In reply, Jokowi said that Indonesia maintained majority ownership in infrastructure projects, despite foreign investment.

He cited his achievement in having Indonesia acquire a majority stake in Grasberg mine, one of the largest gold and copper mines in the world.

The mine is located in Papua province, and was previously owned by a United States-based company.

Jokowi pointed out that the sources of foreign investments were from "companies, not countries", and said:

"Our limited budget makes us invite investments, but when it comes to sovereignty, we will not give even one centimetre."

Corruption and red-tape

The debate also touched upon the issue of corruption within the government bureaucracy, according to the The Conversation.

Prabowo criticised the alleged corruption among regional authorities, leading to a waste of public money.

But Jokowi referred to his record of encouraging the use of technology for "smart government", such as online procurement and services.

He said that the use of such technology helped to reduce corruption, costs, and improve efficiency.

Both candidates will get one last chance to make their pitch to the voters on April 13, during the last debate.

You can watch a video of the debate below:

Top image via screen shot from CNN Indonesia's YouTube Channel.