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Indonesian presidential candidates pledge to crack down on terrorism
Indonesia's presidential candidates pledged to get tough on terrorism as official campaigning began for the country's first direct leadership polls -- a contest overshadowed by a deadly embassy attack. In a televised discussion on the first of three days' official campaigning for the September 20 polls, incumbent Megawati Sukarnoputri defended her government's record on tackling militants, promising to step up security. Speaking just days after her country was jolted by a fresh extremist attack, she tried to reassure voters that with her at the helm, Indonesia would remain a stable nation where a flourishing economy would alleviate widespread poverty. Megawati's uneasy television appearance, in which she answered questions from a selected panel, marked a departure for the president, who has made a policy of avoiding public events where she is required to stray from a script. Her camp earlier this month refused a challenge to a televised debate from her former security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who was clearly more at ease in front of the cameras during the discussion, offering jokes and asides as he laid out his policies. The discussion is likely to be the most high profile event during the pre-poll campaigning which got off to a slow start on a day dominated by a series of bomb hoaxes at public buildings across the country. Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-09-15 |
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