Jakarta: He once described Joko Widodo as a tool of the few; The faker who wove himself onto the scene through slick public relations.
Jokowi, as the Indonesian president is known, was not an ordinary man, Prabowo Subianto protested. He was not humble. The old general's supporters spread rumors during the 2014 so-called black campaign that Jokowi was secretly a Christian and of Chinese descent, an Indonesian version of the “birther” campaign once waged against then-US President Barack Obama.
Potential new Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto (right) and his deputy Gibran Rakabuming Raka at a post-election party on Wednesday.credit: AP
Prabowo lost the election in 2014. Although he had previously suggested leaving politics (“If you are not needed, you should know when to step down”), he lost again to Jokowi in 2019 and claimed voter fraud. Bloody protests followed.
But a decade is a long time in any political landscape. The events that passed between them, especially since 2019, explain what is happening now inside the packed Istora Senayan Indoor Sports Stadium in Jakarta.
It's Wednesday evening, and the stocky former general, now 72, is finally giving his long-awaited victory speech. Behind him on the podium, wearing a loose-fitting blue checkered shirt, is Jokowi's heir, 36-year-old Gebran Rakabuming Raka, who will serve as Prabowo's vice president.
A chant rises from the raucous bays of their supporters: “Goku-we, Goku-we, Goku-we.”
The informal “rapid census” – reputable early voting samples compiled by polling agencies – has the Prabowo-Gebran ticket – backed by a large and well-resourced coalition – poised to win the country's fifth direct presidential election since the fall of corrupt dictator Suharto in The country. 1998.
Prabowo, the powerful former commander of Indonesia's elite special forces, is said to have wanted to take over from his father-in-law even at the time. Instead, he went into self-imposed exile in Jordan, having been dismissed from the army over his reputed role in the 1998 kidnapping and torture of democracy activists, 12 of whom are still missing. Prabowo denies any knowledge of their fate.
Maria Katarina Somarsy, whose son was killed by security forces in 1998, carries the red card as a warning to President Joko Widodo, who has supported Prabowo Subianto.credit: AP
He returned in the early 2000s with the aim of saving the nascent democracy from sliding into a “banana republic.” But he failed to win the 2004 presidential nomination for the Golkar Party, Suharto's political vehicle. He lost again under the banner of his party, Girindra, as running mate to political matriarch Megawati Soekarnoputri in 2009.
Around this time, the nation began to take notice of a former furniture maker who grew up in the riverside huts of Central Java.
In 2010, Joko, the antithesis of Indonesia's ruling elite, was overwhelmingly re-elected as mayor of Solo.
In an attempt to “wash their tainted political reputations” ahead of the 2014 national elections, Prabowo and Megawati associated themselves with the rising star by courting him to run for the influential governorship of Jakarta in 2012.
“As it happened, they had proven very successful at spotting talent, and Jokowi was outpacing them in the position, showing that he could withstand the manipulation games played by the country's top politicians,” Ben Bland wrote in his biography of Jokowi. A man of contradictions.
Amid the turmoil that followed his second win in 2019, Goku did something cunning and unusual. He brought the fiery Prabowo into his cabinet as defense minister, the first step in a sharp rapprochement that would lead to the former general's victory on Wednesday.
Prabowo Subianto (left) is taken to his father's grave in Jakarta on Thursday.credit: AP
Jokowi was reluctantly barred by the constitution from running for a third term as president. He has a lot he wants to achieve, particularly his $US34 billion ($51 billion) vision for a new capital in the remote jungle of Borneo.
He has come under fire for manipulating the state apparatus to his own ends and obstructing the corruption watchdog, but Jokowi remains hugely popular among ordinary Indonesians who adore his down-to-earth, down-to-earth personality and the country's expanding economy.
This time, Prabowo and Jokowi seemed to see a mutual benefit: Prabowo would campaign as a continuity candidate, while Jokowi would remain influential and content to continue his legacy.
The most powerful symbol of this tacit union is Jokowi's son, Gibran, who, despite showing no previous inclination for politics, followed in his father's footsteps to be elected mayor of Sulu in 2020. Like his father, he won with nearly 90 percent. from voting.
The former culinary entrepreneur, who studied for a time at the University of Technology Sydney, was allowed to join Prabowo's team as a running mate thanks to a controversial Constitutional Court decision. It ruled that his election in Sulu exempted him from meeting the minimum age for vice president of 40 years.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Anwar Usman – Jokowi's son-in-law and uncle Gebran – cast the deciding vote for the nine-member panel.
Gibran, whose face was often impassive during the election campaign, had a successful career before politics. Is this the Jokowi dynasty building? Does Gibran really want to be here?
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“What I do know is that his father can't handle him. This guy does whatever he wants,” says Bluntang Boyer, a journalist from Sulu who knows the new second-in-command in the world's third-largest democracy.
“When Jokowi wanted to run for mayor for the second time, the hardest part was getting Gibran’s blessing. He protested because Jokowi would have less time for the family.
“I don't know what made him go in the completely opposite direction in politics… [but] I think he became vice president because of a phone call.
Prabowo lost to Jokowi by six points in 2014 and by about 11 in 2019. It wasn't by much. With the hugely popular president barred from running again, the way was open for one last chance in 2024. But there was more to do than just get Jokowi's unspoken approval.
There remain unproven allegations of Prabowo inciting deadly anti-China riots in 1998 and human rights abuses in conflict zones in East Timor, Aceh and West Papua.
They were all denied, but the US deemed the allegations credible enough to bar him entry for many years – until Prabowo became defense minister in 2019.
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Australia also, as reported in these pages, once blacklisted him for a visa. The Ministry of Internal Affairs did not comment under the pretext of privacy.
“Any foreign press would ask me about human rights – that's been the story for the last 16 years,” he told the BBC before the 2014 campaign. “It comes from my enemies. It is part of the political games.” These days, Prabowo rarely speaks to Western reporters.
His murky past has come to light in this election, although his presidential rivals, former governors Jangar Brannwo and Anies Baswedan, have not emphasized the point.
Prabowo's team is considering whether to appoint the defeated rivals as ministers when he takes over from Jokowi in October.
Indonesia's population is young—about half of its more than 200 million eligible voters are under 40—and far removed from their country's undemocratic past. One important means of alleviating the continuing shadow of human rights was his recruitment of student activists whom he persecuted during Suharto's death months.
Prabowo apologized to Budiman Sudjatmiko, himself a politician, for what happened in 1998, although he did not go into detail. He and his companions were just following orders.
“Things are improving for the Indonesian nation, and we can discuss differences maturely and remember the past as the past,” Budiman told the Indonesian press. “In this context, I call Buck [Mr] Prabowo to move forward. I hope, with my support, the country's best people like Pak Prabowo will not be haunted by the past.
More importantly, the image of the former military man with a famous temper has received a stunning makeover through social media and clever spinners.
The wealthy prince, who in 2014 rode to the stadium on horseback like “Indonesian Mussolini,” has been recast as a grandfatherly figure with a penchant for breaking into spontaneous, foolish dancing. It was all 'gemoy', local slang for 'lovable'.
He and Gibran appeared on TikTok during the campaign in energetic, fast-cut clips with funky beats. They've appeared online and on billboards as adorable Pixar-style avatars. At their final meeting last Saturday, their cartoon figures floated high above the crowd of 100,000 people.
Cartoon avatars of presidential candidates Prabowo and Gibran.
Among the few chosen to take the stage was Prabowo's ex-wife Titik, Suharto's daughter, who remains a staunch supporter of his endless palace ambitions.
“It's introduced every five years to address voters' concerns about not having a first lady,” says Markus Metzner, associate professor at the Australian National University.
Prabowo invited her to the stage to loud and sustained applause and impressed his audience once again by thanking them in his victory speech.
But the most resounding applause at both events came after a name check of someone who wasn't even there, for the man waving quietly backstage, his presidential legacy wrapped in gold, the ruling family confirming: “Jokowi!”
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