Jakarta. Presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto vowed to support non-government organizations (NGOs) on women’s empowerment to better protect women from being oppressed and exploited as he took the final debate stage in Jakarta on Sunday evening. 

“We must enforce the law as strictly as possible. That is unquestionable. Without having a second thought, we must protect everyone in the community, especially women, from all sorts of violence, be it oppression, exploitation, human trafficking, and many more,” Prabowo said.

"In addition to law enforcement, we need to help both government institutions and NGOs to better protect women," Prabowo said.

Prabowo also talked about how activists could be really helpful to protect Indonesian migrant workers abroad, including women. He recalled the time when he once helped rescue Wilfrida Soik, an Indonesian migrant worker, from the death penalty in Malaysia back in 2015. Prabowo said he had learned of Wilfrida’s case from an activist.

“Back then, an activist had told me that there was an Indonesian woman working in Malaysia and that she would get hanged in two weeks. If this activist had not told me, we would not be able to help and intervene,” Prabowo said.