Prabowo Subianto

Prabowo Subianto Djojohadikusumo (born 1951) is an Indonesian politician, businessman and retired general who became Indonesia's eighth president on 20 October 2024. The son of the economist Sumitro Djojohadikusumo and grandson of the founder of Bank Negara Indonesia, he rose through the Special Forces to command the Army Strategic Reserves, was discharged from the military in the crisis of 1998, built a business career and the Gerindra Party, served as minister of defence from 2019 to 2024, and won the presidency at his third attempt. ^{1 2}

He was born in Jakarta on 17 October 1951 and spent much of his childhood abroad, in Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Switzerland and Britain, as his father moved in and out of exile and favour. He graduated from the Indonesian Military Academy in 1970 and spent most of his career in the Special Forces (Kopassus), commanding units in East Timor and leading the 1981 mission that freed hostages from a hijacked Garuda aircraft in Bangkok. In 1983 he married Siti Hediati Hariyadi (Titiek), a daughter of President Suharto. In March 1998 he was appointed commander of the Army Strategic Reserves (Kostrad); after Suharto's fall that May, amid findings on the abduction of activists by a unit under his former command, he was discharged from the military and spent a period in Jordan. ¹

Returning to Indonesia, he worked in his brother Hashim Djojohadikusumo's business group, with interests in pulp, paper, energy and plantations. In 2008 his circle founded the Gerindra Party. He ran as Megawati's vice-presidential candidate in 2009, and contested the presidency in 2014 and 2019, losing both times to Joko Widodo, who then brought him into government as minister of defence in October 2019. ^{1 3}

Standing in 2024 with Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the eldest son of Joko Widodo, as his running mate, he won the February 2024 election in a single round and was sworn in on 20 October 2024, becoming Indonesia's third president with a military background and its oldest first-term president. ¹

In the English article's religion section, Prabowo states his own position: in a 2018 interview he described himself as a Muslim who adhered to nationalist views, while saying that his knowledge of Islam was limited and that he had not been born into a family steeped in Islamic teaching; in May 2023 he said he was proud to adhere to Islam. His mother, Dora Marie Sigar, was a Protestant Christian of Minahasan descent; the record does not build on family background. No source registered here names a school for him, so the museum records his faith as unknown, with his self-identification as a Muslim preserved in the data record. ^{1 4}

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