Indonesia

INDONESIA

Indonesia, with 277 million people, is the fourth most populous nation in the world after India, China and the USA. It has just held an election, with the winning candidate Prabowo Subianto garnering 60% of the presidential vote. The New York Times calls him “a strongman apparatchik accused of multiple human rights abuses” and “a violent nationalist”. He will succeed a popular

president Joko Wiwodo, known for his expansion of welfare programs.

Prabowo made his career in the Indonesian military, which has had a vicious history since the 1960s, when it overthrew the country’s independence leader Sukarno and installed a general named Suharto, who ruled with an iron hand with US support for 30 years after killing and incarcerating hundreds of thousands of Sukarno’s leftist supporters. Prabowo is Suharto’s son-in-law. He ordered the kidnapping of political dissidents in 1998 for which he was later dismissed from the army and even banned from the US for nearly 20 years. Prabowo, now 72, claims he has mellowed; we shall see. US officials are interested in neutralizing Chinese influence in Indonesia and are keeping a careful watch. 

Sources: The New York Times, 2/16/24 and Wikipedia