Indonesia has seen many faces of Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto over his decades in the public eye \u2013 the cheshire grin that accompanies his recent viral dance moves, flashes of his temper in fervent orations and the humiliation when he was dismissed from the military in 1998.Now, it appears the latest portrait of Prabowo will be the one to be hung in government offices across the country as Indonesia\u2019s next president after he took a commanding lead in unofficial results from Wednesday\u2019s election.Long a polarising figure, the ex-special forces general\u2019s presumed resounding victory is being met with a mixture of elation and anxiety across the world\u2019s third-largest democracy.One major question is how well, and for how long, his alliance with outgoing President Joko Widodo, or \u201cJokowi\u201d, will hold.\u201cIt will hold as long as Prabowo judges it in his interests to hold and no longer,\u201d said Liam Gammon, from the Australian National University (ANU), of the unsteady alliance between the two former rivals, \u201cAnd when it doesn\u2019t any longer, I would expect that Jokowi is quickly marginalized.\u201dAfter twice losing to Jokowi in 2014 and 2019, Prabowo, 72, has leaned into the deep popularity of Widodo-ism, even controversially naming the president\u2019s son as his running mate in the election to rule the world\u2019s most populous Muslim-majority nation.On the campaign trail Prabowo has promised policy \u201ccontinuity\u201d, but analysts say that is far from guaranteed.\u201cThe key thing here is that Prabowo\u2019s alignment with Jokowi has very much been an electoral strategy, not necessarily a governing strategy,\u201d said Doug Ramage, of BowerGroupAsia.\u201cMake no mistake a President Prabowo would be his own president.\u201dYet the calculation millions have made is that Jokowi will continue to wield influence through his son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, 36, despite the vice president\u2019s office holding little power.Differences in opinion over cabinet appointments, Indonesia\u2019s planned new capital, military and social service spending and the placement of family members in government could all lead to deteriorating relations, said political analyst Kevin O\u2019Rourke.\u201cThese are all things that are potential fissures between them because this arrangement, whereby the outgoing president expects continuity from his successor, is questionable given their very starkly different backgrounds,\u201d he said.\u2018UNCERTAINTY\u2019 ON THE CARDSIn contrast to Jokowi, Prabowo is from an elite family, the son of a prominent Indonesian economist and the ex-son-law of the country\u2019s former authoritarian ruler, Suharto.A once promising special forces commander, Prabowo was dismissed from the military in May 1998 amid allegations of human rights abuses, which he has consistently denied.Prabowo has campaigned on a platform of \u201cIndonesia Maju\u201d or \u201cDeveloping Indonesia,\u201d promising to give free lunches to the nation\u2019s children, and achieve 7% economic growth.Wednesday\u2019s win is the pinnacle of a triumphant rehabilitation for the ex-commander, and one decades in the making.\u201cThis victory should be the victory for all Indonesians,\u201d he said on Wednesday night, claiming victory as unofficial tallies showed he held a commanding lead. \u201cWe will assemble a government team consisting of the best sons and daughters of Indonesia.\u201dIn past campaigns, Prabowo was seen as a fiery nationalist who cosied up to hardline Islamist groups. More recently his image has softened, with a social-media focused campaign highlighting his Javanese dance moves and \u201cgemoy\u201d, or cute, demeanour.\u201cHe\u2019s had so many different personas. Why would you assume that this one sticks?\u201d said ANU\u2019s Gammon. \u201cThe one thing that Prabowo brings is uncertainty.\u201dAnalysts say a Prabowo government would likely play a bigger role in the economy and his cabinet would follow the well-established pragmatism of Indonesian presidents, with a mixture of loyalists, political party appointments and technocrats.On foreign affairs, Prabowo has pledged to continue Indonesia\u2019s free and active policy, although an off-piste peace plan for Ukraine he proposed at the Shangri-La Dialogue last June offered a glimpse into his tendency to go it alone.As defence minister, Prabowo Subianto has embarked on a major upgrade of Indonesia\u2019s military hardware, but some deals, such as a now-scrapped plan to purchase 12 used Mirage jets from Qatar have sparked criticism about inflated costs and tenuous utility.Once his victory is officially endorsed, Prabowo will assume the controls of Southeast Asia\u2019s biggest economy on October 20.Underlining worries that Indonesia is regressing democratically, the ex-commander has previously discussed abolishing presidential term limits and ending direct elections. During this campaign, he was the only candidate not to respond to a questionnaire from Human Rights Watch, or attend an event where candidates pledged to protect press freedom.\u201cThe optimistic scenario is that you have a presidency broadly like Jokowi\u2019s, where you see a steady chipping away at rights and institutions without a precipitous collapse of democracy,\u201d said Gammon.\u201cBut even then you\u2019d expect a more openly vindictive treatment of perceived enemies.\u201d(Reuters)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Prabowo Subianto, the former Defence Minister of Indonesia, has taken a commanding lead in unofficial results from Wednesday’s election, making him the presumed next president of Indonesia. His victory is met with a mixture of elation and anxiety, as he is a polarizing figure. One major question is how long his alliance with outgoing President Joko Widodo will hold. Prabowo has aligned himself with Widodo’s policies during the campaign, but analysts say that policy continuity is not guaranteed. Prabowo is from an elite family and was dismissed from the military in 1998 amid allegations of human rights abuses. He has campaigned on a platform of “Developing Indonesia” and promises to achieve 7% economic growth. A Prabowo government would likely play a bigger role in the economy and follow the pragmatism of previous Indonesian presidents. However, concerns about Indonesia’s democratic regression have been raised, as Prabowo has discussed abolishing presidential term limits and ending direct elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3026,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[403,3,645,26,153,415,115,396,634,114,17,42,18],"class_list":["post-3025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cyprus","tag-asia","tag-cyprus","tag-economic-growth","tag-economy","tag-elections","tag-government","tag-human-rights","tag-indonesia","tag-opinion","tag-top-news","tag-ukraine","tag-upgrade","tag-world"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"\n