Moluccas International Campaign for Human Rights
  • THESE ARE THE MOLUCCAN ISLANDS: FACTS & OPINIONS
  • MELANESIA VERSUS INDONESIA
  • ABOUT MOLUCCAS INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
  • REPRESSION OF A BASIC HUMAN RIGHT IN MALUKU: FREEDOM OF POLITICAL EXPRESSION
  • SOUTH MOLUCCAS ISLANDS’ ILLEGAL OCCUPATION BY JAKARTA
  • MOLUCCAS SOVEREIGNTY FRONT - FRONT KEDAULATAN MALUKU (FKM)
  • LETTERS DR. ALEXANDER H. MANUPUTTY TO THE UN & HEADS OF STATE AND GOVERNMENT AND AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
  • PESTA DEMOKRASI: FRONT KEDAULATAN MALUKU MENUNTUT PENGEMBALIAN KEDAULATAN RMS 25 APRIL 1950 – 25 APRIL 2014
  • PHOTOS FKM-RMS DEMONSTRATION IN FRONT OF PARLIAMENT HOUSE OF ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA ON OCTOBER 26, 2010 & SEPTEMBER 7, 2010
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  • INDONESIA: A SYSTEM BUILT ON CORRUPTION
  • INDONESIA GELAP‼️DARK INDONESIA
  • PRABOWO SUBIANTO: INDONESIA’S MASSACRE GENERAL
  • PRABOWO’S INDONESIA: ​A RETURN TO MILITARY SUPREMACY ‼️
  • KORUPSI - KEMISKINAN DAN KETERBELAKANGAN DI MALUKU - CORRUPTION - POVERTY AND UNDERDEVELOPMENT IN THE MOLUCCAS
  • PALM OIL PLANTATION CRIME IN INDONESIA AND ITS CORRUPT POLITICAL MACHINE
  • MASELA - OIL AND GAS BLOCKS CAN LIBERATE MALUKU FROM POVERTY
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  • SAVE ROMANG
  • INDONESIAN MILITARY INVOLVEMENT WITH AGGRESSIVE MINING, ILLEGAL LOGGING AND ILLEGAL FISHING IN THE MOLUCCAS
  • LASKAR JIHAD - SUHARTO COMPANIONS AND THE MOLUCCAN CIVIL WAR - JUSTICE DEMAND
  • MOLUCCAS: GENOCIDE ON THE SLY - INDONESIA’S TRANSMIGRATION PROGRAM
  • TRANSMIGRASI ADALAH ANCAMAN LATEN TERHADAP EKSISTENSI GEOGRAFI, EKONOMI DAN SOSIAL POLITIK RAKYAT MALUKU DALAM JANGKA PANJANG
  • ECOLOGY & SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN THE MOLUCCAS
  • DISPLACED PEOPLE IN THE MOLUCCAS - PENGUNGSI DI MALUKU
  • INSIDE INDONESIA’S WAR ON TERROR
  • TNI, BRIMOB AND STATE TERROR IN THE MOLUCCAS
  • IMPUNITY AND THE INDONESIAN MASTERS OF TERROR
  • STOP KILLING - ASSAULTING AND KIDNAPPING JOURNALISTS IN INDONESIA ‼️
  • 8 MARCH INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY
  • 26 JUNE UN INTERNATIONAL DAY IN SUPPORT OF VICTIMS OF TORTURE
  • 9 AUGUST - UN INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE WORLD’S INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
  • RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES - HAK ASASI MASYARAKAT ADAT
  • THE DUTCH - INDONESIA CORPORATE CONNECTION
  • LIBERATING OUR COLONIAL MINDSET
  • UNPO: IN PURSUIT OF THE RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION
  • NKRI DIDIRIKAN DI ATAS KONSEP YANG SALAH
  • GAJAH DENGAN GAJAH BERLAGA, ORANG MALUKU MATI DI TENGAH - TENGAH
  • THE PLAYERS BEHIND THE MALUKU MADNESS
  • INDONESIAN STATE SPONSORED UNBRIDLED NICKEL EXPLOITATION IN NORTH MOLUCCAS: SERVING THE ECONOMIC INTEREST OF INDONESIAN OLIGARCHS AND CHINA
  • THE IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CRISIS ON SMALL ISLANDS STATES
  • MOTHER ISLAND SERAM UNDER SIEGE ‼️
  • SURAT TERBUKA KEPADA ​PRESIDEN JOKO WIDODO
  • FILM "DIRTY VOTE"! TERBONGKAR SEMUA SKENARIO CURANG!
  • MALUKU FOR KANAKY
  • KUTUKAN NIKEL | BLOODY NICKEL
  • PESTA OLIGARKI
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  • PESAN NATAL DAN TAHUN BARU BAGI SELURUH ​ANAK BANGSA MALUKU
  • LAND GRABBING, MINING, FOOD ESTATE, PALM OIL & ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME IN MALUKU
  • CONGRATULATIONS TO PRESIDENT TRUMP AFTER HIS INAUGURATION
  • THE NUTMEG’S CURSE: ​PARABLES FOR A PLANET IN CRISIS
  • “BLOODY NICKEL THE SERIES: REPUBLIK RENTE”
P2

Prabowo Gains Ground Ahead of Indonesia’s Presidential Election

a son-in-law to the Indonesian generalissimo, has been credibly 
implicated in a litany of human rights abuses, including atrocities committed in the conflict zones of East Timor and Aceh, and the 

abduction of pro-democracy activists in the final months of New Order rule.


During his two election campaigns, he also promised quite explicitly to roll back some of the democratic reforms that had been introduced after Suharto’s fall. In a 2015 paper, Edward Aspinall of the Australian National University in Canberra described Prabowo as an “oligarchic populist” who represented “a classically authoritarian-populist challenge of a sort that is common in 
democratic regimes characterized by pervasive 
 
 
patronage politics, weak institutions, and highly decentralized governance.” According to Aspinall, Prabowo’s pitch in 2014 was based on the twin planks of strident nationalism and a pledge to cut through the “environment of deceit and money politics” by presenting himself as “an anti-political outsider who could provide the strong leadership Indonesia needed.” 

It is hard not to see a vague family resemblance between Prabowo’s near-misses and the successes enjoyed by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who won a large election victory last year. The victory capped off a decades-long attempt to rehabilitate his family’s image and override public memory of the grand-scale corruption and human rights abuses that occurred under Marcos Sr.’s period of Martial Law.

According to a recent report in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), Prabowo may have learned from those earlier losses to the more unassuming Jokowi, and has made efforts to recast his image ahead of the next election campaign. According to the SCMP, his clenched-fist image has been “replaced with an image of an even-tempered and easy-going politician, sharing viral selfies wearing a hoodie sporting his Gerindra Party branding.” He has also made efforts to take a “softer tact” in his speeches and connect with young Indonesians on social media.


​Whether or not Prabowo prevails to win the Indonesian presidency remains to be seen. But his continuing popularity, like the return of the Marcoses in the Philippines, says something significant about both the power of political marketing and disinformation to efface past abuses, and the political conditions that give such appeals purchase. It also suggests that while young Indonesians have been at the forefront of the country’s long struggle for popular sovereignty, the political attitudes of the country’s youth are ambivalent and hard to press into a simple ideological mold.
STAFF AUTHOR
Sebastian Strangio
Sebastian Strangio is Southeast Asia editor at The Diplomat.  
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