Photos: In pomp-filled day, Prabowo Subianto takes reins of power in Indonesia
Scenes from the inauguration of the country’s new president, a former special forces commander linked to the late dictator Suharto.
BenarNews staff 2024.10.20 Jakarta and Washington
Prabowo Subianto is sworn in as Indonesia’s new president during an inauguration ceremony at the House of Representatives building in Jakarta, Oct. 20, 2024.
Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana/Reuters
The Prabowo Subianto era formally began in Indonesia on Sunday after the ex-army general with a tainted human rights record took the oath of office as the new president of Southeast Asia’s largest country.
Prabowo, 73, was sworn in as the eighth Indonesian leader, taking over from Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who completed his second and constitutionally mandated final term as president.
Prabowo had lost the two previous presidential elections to Jokowi but he served as defense minister in the second Joko administration and romped into power via the 2024 general election, held eight months ago.
His path to power was buoyed through a political alliance with Jokowi, which saw the outgoing president’s oldest son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, be elected as Prabowo’s running mate through a controversial court decision.
Prabowo, the former son-in-law of longtime Indonesian dictator Suharto, has never shaken off allegations of being linked to human rights abuses during his military career in the army special forces (Kopassus). Those included allegations that he oversaw the disappearance of pro-democracy student activists in the days before President Suharto’s downfall in May 1998.
The new president begins his first five-year term with the prospect that he could be ruling without a parliamentary opposition. Last week, PDI-P, the party which won the most seats in February polls, announced that it would support his coalition, although it had promised to stay in the opposition.