Prabowo Subianto yesterday took office as Indonesia’s eighth president, vowing to revive the country’s economy, combat inequality and corruption, and to be a good neighbor to the world.
Clad in a traditional black songkok hat and navy suit, Prabowo, who turned 73 last week, took the oath of office on the Quran during a ceremony at Indonesia’s parliament yesterday morning. Leaders from 33 countries flew in to attend the ceremony, including Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Timor-Leste’s Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, Brunei Darussalam’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, and vice presidents from Vietnam, Laos, and China.
The former general and his youthful running-mate Gibran Rakabuming Raka won a thundering victory at February’s presidential election, winning more than 58 percent of the nationwide vote. This came after he ran unsuccessfully against President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in the elections of 2014 and 2019, as well as an unsuccessful vice-presidential bid in 2009.
After being sworn in alongside Gibran, Prabowo delivered what Reuters described as a “fiery” and “wide-ranging” inauguration speech. During the speech, which lasted around an hour, he thanked by name all seven previous Indonesian heads of state for their contributions to building “a whole, sovereign, and independent country that continues to maintain and fight for independence and justice.”
He then promised to defend and extend this achievement, detailing the poverty and corruption plaguing the country. “Too many of our brothers and sisters are below the poverty line, too many of our children go to school without breakfast and do not have clothes for school,” Prabowo said. “We must always realize that a free nation is where the people are free. They must be freed of fear, poverty, hunger, ignorance, oppression, suffering.”
Prabowo vowed to achieve self-sufficiency for food within five years, and to pursue self-sufficiency in energy. He also vowed to crack down on corruption. “We must dare to see all of this and we must dare to solve all of these problems,” he said.
In echoes from his past presidential campaigns, in which he openly disdained the democratic reforms of the post-Suharto era, Prabowo said that while he wanted to live in a democracy, it must be “polite.” “A difference of opinion must come without enmity … fighting without hating,” he said, according to Reuters.
On the foreign policy front, Prabowo pledged to carry on the country’s non-aligned foreign policy tradition and to be a good neighbor to the region and the world. “We will stand against all colonialism and we will defend the interests of oppressed people worldwide,” he said.
After his speech, Prabowo was cheered through the streets of Jakarta by thousands of waving supporters as he made his way toward the presidential palace. Clad in navy blue and a baseball cap etched with the Indonesian national crest, the Associated Press reported, Prabowo “stood up in the sunroof of a white van and waved, occasionally shaking people’s hands, as his motorcade struggled to pass through the thousands of supporters calling his name.”
The motorcade marked the triumphant apotheosis for Prabowo, and the culmination of a political rebranding exercise that has helped occlude his controversial past. Born in Jakarta on October 17, 1951, Prabowo rose to prominence as a military commander under Suharto’s New Order, which governed Indonesia from 1967 to 1998. As one of the administration’s chief enforcers and the commander of Kopassus, the army’s special forces, Prabowo has been credibly implicated in a litany of human rights abuses. These included atrocities committed in the conflict zones of East Timor and Aceh, and the kidnapping and torture of 22 political activists during the protests that brought down the New Order in 1998, 13 of whom remain missing. These claims saw him dismissed from the military after Suharto’s fall and for many years he was banned from entering the United States. (The U.S. lifted the ban after Prabowo was appointed defense minister in 2019.)
During the 2014 and 2019 election campaigns, Prabowo waxed nostalgic about the New Order years and was quite open about his intention to roll back some of the democratic reforms that were introduced after Suharto’s fall. In the run-up to the 2024 election, however, Prabowo shifted tack. He launched a social media campaign to recast his persona as a “cuddly” uncle, appearing in TikTok videos petting his cats and performing his “happy dance” at political rallies.
Prabowo also benefited from an alliance with Jokowi, who appointed him defense minister after the 2019 election. During this year’s campaign, Prabowo ran as the popular outgoing president’s heir. He sought to harness Jokowi’s massive popularity by appointing his son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, as his vice-presidential running-mate. While Jokowi did not officially endorse Prabowo – such an action is unusual for Indonesian presidents – he refused to express support for his own former party’s candidate, and his son’s presence on Prabowo’s ticket made it clear to many where his loyalties lay.
As a result, there is likely to be a considerable amount of continuity under Prabowo, who has promised to ramp up government spending in order to attain his ambitious domestic goals, which include growth rates of 8 percent annually for his first term. Like Jokowi, too, he is likely to wield the power of the state to develop local industries and guide the economy in ways supportive of his political, economic, and strategic goals.
The continuity is clearly visible in Prabowo’s cabinet, which he announced after his swearing-in yesterday. Of the 48 members of the “Red and White Cabinet,” as Prabowo has dubbed it, a third are figures who served in Jokowi’s most recent cabinet, who have either been kept on in the same roles or reassigned different portfolios. There are particularly strong continuities in ministries connected to the economy.
As previously reported, Sri Mulyani Indrawati will continue as Indonesia’s finance minister. Airlangga Hartarto will also continue as coordinating minister for economic affairs and Erick Thohir has retained his post as minister of state-owned enterprises. Bahlil Lahadalia, a key aide of Jokowi, has been retained as energy and mineral resources minister and former national police chief Tito Karnavian will continue as home minister.
Rosan Roeslani, a former ambassador to the U.S. who headed Prabowo’s election campaign, will stay on as investment minister, although the ministry has been renamed the Ministry of Investment and Downstreaming, reflecting an increased focus on the development of industries connected to critical minerals, including nickel.
Other Jokowi-era figures have been given new positions. Pratikno, who served as secretary of state under Jokowi, will assume the position of coordinating human development and culture minister. Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono, the outgoing minister of agrarian affairs, will head a newly created Coordinating Ministry for Infrastructure and Regional Development. Zulkifli Hasan, who served as minister of trade since 2022, will serve as the coordinating minister for food issues, also a new position.
Sugiono, who was the deputy head of the parliamentary commission overseeing foreign policy, is Indonesia’s new foreign affairs minister, replacing Retno Marsudi. Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, a retired general, has been appointed defense minister.
The Red and White Cabinet is Indonesia’s largest since the 1960s, with 48 people serving as ministers and 58 as vice ministers, compared with 34 ministers and around 30 vice ministers under Jokowi. All of this reflects both the extent of Prabowo’s policy ambitions and the need to accommodate the unwieldy expanse of his ruling coalition.