Last week, in Indonesia, ex-general Prabowo Subianto again did not move heaven and earth against the counting of the presidential elections. The reason is that this time he won them. Well, according to the projections.
The peace of the warrior, for someone who has been trying to get the reins of the State democratically for two decades, but someone who had previously sent tanks to Jakarta in the name of "how do we have that?".
His victory further tarnishes the memory of the repressive and corrupt regime of General Suharto, his father-in-law, whom he served as special forces commander.
So the next G-20 summits will have the dubious honor of having an ex-military man with a murky past and funny intentions, at the head of the fourth most populous country on the planet.
Despite his privileges, Subianto, like other populists, presents himself as someone alien to the elite and who "speaks plainly", but unlike Jair Bolsonaro or Javier Milei, he is not a simple admirer of military dictatorships, but someone which played a leading role in its repressive apparatus.
In 1998, the end of Suharto's new order was also the end of his military career. He had distinguished himself against the insurgency, with tactics learned at the School of the Americas.
In East Timor, for example, it was a matter of pitting some Timorese against others, but the killing of Kraras and the excesses of his pinchos put the interlocutors in the United States on alert.
He was also accused of sponsoring a new wave of violence against the decimated Chinese minority, to distract attention and save Suharto, after the 1997 crisis, but which exhausted the patience of the Chinese embassy USA was the kidnapping and torture of 23 student leaders, 13 of whom never reappeared.
It is true that there are those who hope that the old lion – Prabowo is 72 years old – has already been entrusted with a bit of democracy. In the same way that he saw the world and learned languages as a child, when his father – Minister of Finance, then privatizer – had to go into exile after the failure of the first coup against Sukarno.
Therefore, after falling from grace, Prabowo returned abroad. He would not return to Indonesia until twenty years ago, with the intention of being a candidate for Golkar, which was Suharto's party. Failing that, he founded his own party, Gerindra, and ran in 2009 as a vice-presidential candidate for Megawati, Sukarno's daughter, also unsuccessfully.
He finally had the major irritation of losing both duels with someone who came out of nowhere, Joko Widodo, Jokowi. In a surprising reparation, he himself appointed him Minister of Defense in 2019, having also reconciled with Islamist elements.
Jokowi will leave in October with skyrocketing popularity, but he has disappointed those who expected an overhaul of Suharto's dictatorship. His plan to capture Prabowo and use his son Gibran – vice president – as a handbrake may not stand the test of reality.
In any case, the billionaire brother who finances Prabowo promises continuity in good relations with the US, France or China. The green economy has pulled Indonesia out of the corner and now the general wants it to scream. Of command
