ON 20 October 2024, Prabowo Subianto will be inaugurated as President of the Republic of Indonesia. Prabowo’s journey to become President of the Republic of Indonesia is a long journey, which begins in 2024.
Prabowo took part in the presidential candidate convention held by the Golkar Party in 2004, but lost.
In 2008, Prabowo founded the Greater Indonesia Movement Party or better known as Gerindra. A year later, Prabowo, who received a mandate from his party to become a presidential candidate, finally ran as a vice presidential candidate to accompany Megawati Soekarnoputri who became a presidential candidate.
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The agreement between the two parties became known as the Slate Agreement. However, the Megawati-Prabowo pair lost the 2009 presidential election.
Five years later, in the 2014 presidential election, Prabowo again ran as a presidential candidate. Paired with Hatta Rajasa and supported by Gerindra, PAN and Golkar, the pair lost to the pair of Joko Widodo and Jusuf Kalla.
Prabowo himself rejected the election results and claimed there was massive fraud which was later known to the public as structured, systematic and massive or TSM.
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The 2014 presidential election also showed differences in quick calculations by several survey institutions. These differences were used as justification for claims of victory by both camps.
These differences have the potential to give rise to public distrust in survey institutions, which then prompts the Ethics Council of the Indonesian Public Opinion Survey Association (Persepi) to summon two survey institutions with different results.
Hamdi Muluk, member of the Persepi Ethics Council, stated at that time: “We can only summon two institutions because they are members of Persepi. “We will hold an ethics board meeting and after that summon two survey institutions who are members of Persepi.”
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Apart from that, another impact of the 2014 presidential election was the polarization between the Jokowi and Prabowo camps which created a heated political climate. This polarization became related to the issue of identity after the 2017 DKI Jakarta gubernatorial election (pilgub). Basuki Tjahaya Purnama’s fight against Anies Baswedan dragged down the names of Jokowi and Prabowo.
In the 2019 presidential election, the issue of identity deepened. Jokowi’s decision to pair with Kiai Ma’ruf Amin is thought to be driven by efforts to suppress this polarity. Prabowo, who was paired with Sandiaga Uno, lost again in the 2019 presidential election.
Prabowo again rejected the results of the presidential election and claimed large-scale fraud. This sparked mass protests in Jakarta, some of which ended in violence. Six people were recorded as having died in the clash and two hundred people were injured.
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At that time, Indonesia Police Watch even urged Prabowo and Sandi to, “Apologize to the public, because as a result of the actions of their supporters there were riots which made the people of the capital Jakarta anxious, afraid and felt terrorized.”
After the riots, the hashtag #arrestPrabowo became trending on Twitter. This hashtag even became a trending topic on international Twitter. This hashtag was linked to accusations that Prabowo was the mastermind behind the riots that occurred. At that time, Prabowo himself was also reported by the Indonesian Concerned Community and Ade Armando for allegedly spreading hoaxes through the couple’s claims of victory. Ade stated that Prabowo’s claim of victory “is a lie, and this lie has the potential to cause upheaval, anger and chaos in society if the results are different (to the calculation by the KPU).”
At almost the same time, several political figures in Prabowo’s circle were arrested. Kivlan Zen, former Chief of Staff of the Army Strategic Reserve Command, was even named a suspect in treason charges. Likewise with several other figures such as Lieus Sungkharisma and Egi Sudjana.
Apart from them, Soenarko, former Danjen Kopassus, was also arrested on charges of treason. Soenarko was accused of directing several TNI officers to overthrow the government and was even accused of smuggling weapons. These charges are not light accusations. During the trial process, this accusation was not proven. However, this is a matter of note considering that there are serious allegations of the use of the reporting process as an effort to silence opposition voices.
The fighting after the 2019 presidential election only subsided after Jokowi invited Prabowo to join the cabinet. Prabowo’s willingness shows his magnanimity to carry out reconciliation and support Jokowi’s second term government for a better Indonesia.
Even though there were concerns about two suns in government, in fact Prabowo was able to position himself well in the cabinet. Prabowo showed consistency as a soldier who was always respectful and loyal to his leaders.
In the 2024 presidential election, Prabowo finally won, paired with Gibran Rakabuming Raka. On October 20 2024, Prabowo Subianto will be inaugurated as President of the Republic of Indonesia. Prabowo’s long journey to lead him to the presidency is a story about loyalty, patience, hard work and the desire to continue serving his homeland and nation. (Z-1)
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