Who doesn’t know the great figure Prabowo Subianto? His name is always widely discussed in the world of politics and the military. Not only did he “master” the world of politics and the military, it turns out that he has carried out many important tasks in our country, both in the economic sector and the Indonesian movement.
So, who really is Prabowo Subianto? How did his career progress in the military world until he finally entered the world of politics? Come on, take a look at the following description!
Who is Prabowo Subianto?
TNI General (Ret.) H. Prabowo Subianto Djojohadikusumo is the third child and first son who was born on October 17 1951. His father was Soemitro Djojohadikusumo who came from Kebumen, Central Java. Prabowo’s father was an economic expert and also a politician from the Indonesian Socialist Party who at that time had just finished serving as Minister of Industry in the Natsir Cabinet in April 1952. Meanwhile, his mother was Dora Marie Sigar or known as Dora Soemitro. She is a Protestant Christian woman of Minahasan descent. His mother came from the Maengkom family in Langowan, North Sulawesi.
After the birth of Prabowo Subianto, his father, Soemitro, was reappointed as Minister of Finance in the Wilopo Cabinet. Prabowo has two older sisters, named Biantiningsih Miderawati and Maryani Ekowati. He also has a younger brother named Hashim Djojohadikusumo. Prabowo is the grandson of Margono Djojohadikusumo, the founder of Bank Negara Indonesia and also the first Chairman of the Supreme Advisory Council.
The Djojohadikusumo family is descended from Raden Tumenggung Kertanegara, who was the commander of Prince Diponegoro’s army. The name Prabowo itself is the name taken from his uncle, Captain Soebianto Djojohadikusumo, who was an officer in the People’s Security Army who died in the Battle of Lengkong in January 1964 in Tangerang.
Prabowo’s childhood was spent abroad, especially after his father’s involvement in opposing President Soekarno’s government in the Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Indonesia in West Sumatra. Prabowo completed his secondary studies at the Victoria Institution in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Zurich International School in Zurich, Switzerland; and The American School in London, England. After the fall of Soekarno and the rise of Suharto, the Soemitro family returned to Indonesia. Then Prabowo entered the Military Academy in Magelang, Central Java.
In May 1983, Prabowo married Siti Hediati Hariyadi, who was the daughter of President Soeharto and Tien Soeharto. Prabowo and Siti Hediati were blessed with a son, namely Ragowo Hediprasetyo or Didiet. However, their marriage did not last until they were old. Not long after the New Order collapsed, the two of them separated in 1998. Their child, Didiet, grew up in Boston, United States and chose a profession as a designer based in Paris, France.
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Prabowo Subianto’s Military Career
Prabowo Subianto is a politician, businessman and high-ranking Indonesian military officer. Prabowo studied and had a career in the military for 28 years. It all started in 1976, he began his military career in the Indonesian Army as a Second Lieutenant after graduating from the Military Academy in Magelang. From 1976 to 1985 Prabowo served in the Sandi Yudha Troop Command or Kopassandha, which at that time was an Army special force. One of his first assignments was as a platoon commander in Group I/Para Commando which was part of the Nanggala operational force in East Timor.
When he was 26 years old, Prabowo became one of the youngest platoon commanders in the operation. He had a big role in leading a mission to arrest Nicolau dos Reis Lobato , who was the Fretilin leader who during Operation Seroja served as Prime Minister. In 1985, Prabowo became deputy commander of the 328th Airborne Infantry Battalion. In 1991, Prabowo served as Chief of Staff of the 17th Airborne Infantry Brigade which was headquartered in Cijantung.
In 1993, Prabowo returned to the Special Forces which was now named the Special Forces Command or Kopassus. Prabowo was appointed Commander of Group 3/Sandi Yudha, which is one of the Kopassus counter-insurgency commands. Subsequently, Prabowo served as deputy commander of the command under the leadership of Brigadier General Agum Gumelar and Brigadier General Subagyo Hadi Siswoyo.
In December 1995, Prabowo was appointed as Commander General of Kopassus with the rank of Major General. One of his first tasks was the operation to free the Mapenduma hostages. On March 20 1998, Prabowo was appointed Commander of the Army Strategic Reserve Command, a position previously held by his father-in-law.
Prabowo commands around 11 thousand ABRI reserve troops. Prabowo asked Armed Forces Commander General Wiranto to be allowed to mobilize his reserve troops from outside Jakarta to help quell riots in May 1998. Although Wiranto ultimately rejected this request, Prabowo allegedly flew hundreds of people who had been trained by Kopassus units in his control of Timor Leste from Dili. to Yogyakarta, and then to Jakarta by train. On May 14, Prabowo met with several reform activists such as Adnan Buyung Nasution and Bambang Widjojanto to discuss the heated situation.
On May 21 1998, President Soeharto announced his resignation and was replaced by Habibie who was immediately appointed on the same day. In the afternoon Prabowo met Habibie and asked him to appoint Prabowo as ABRI Commander to replace Wiranto. But Habibie dismissed Prabowo from his position as Kostrad commander.
Prabowo met Suharto after being dismissed from office, but Prabowo’s father-in-law did not support him. Finally, Prabowo was assigned as Commander of the ABRI Command and Staff College in Bandung, replacing Lieutenant General Arie J. Kumaat. On July 14 1998, the ABRI Commander formed an Officer Honorary Council chaired by General Subagyo Hadi Siswoyo along with 6 other lieutenant generals, namely: Fachrul Razi (Deputy Chairman), Djamari Chaniago (secretary), Arie J. Kumaat, Agum Gumelar, Susilo Bambanv Yudhoyono, and Yusuf Kartanegara.
This council is examining Prabowo on 7 points of accusation; one of which is deliberately making mistakes in task analysis, carrying out and controlling operations in the context of national stability which are not within his authority, but are the authority of the Commander of the Army, not involving organic staff in staff procedures, control and supervision, and often going abroad without permission from the Army Chief of Staff or Commander of the Army.
During the trial, Prabowo claimed he was a prisoner of war protected by the Geneva Convention and frequently exercised his right not to speak, much to the frustration of council members who already had to wear bulletproof vests. Prabowo was tried based on the Criminal Code and the Military Criminal Code.
DKP decided that Prabowo was guilty and had committed a criminal act of disobedience (Article 103 of the Military Criminal Code); ordering the deprivation of liberty of other people (Article 55 (1) 2nd of the Military Criminal Code and Article 333 of the Criminal Code), and kidnapping (Article 55 (1) 2nd and Article 328 of the Criminal Code). Prabowo’s dismissal from military service caused controversy during the 2009 general election, when politician Gerindra Fadli Zon denied that Prabowo had been fired, but rather “dismissed with honor”.
Prabowo Subianto’s Business Career
After Prabowo left his military career, he chose to follow his younger brother’s career as an entrepreneur. In the business world, Prabowo owns and leads 27 companies in Indonesia and also abroad. Prabowo became president and CEO of PT Tidar Kerinci Agung which operates in the palm oil production sector, then PT Nusantara Energy which operates in the oil and gas, mining, agriculture, forestry and pulp sectors, and also PT Jaladri Nusantara which operates in the fisheries sector.
His career began by buying Kiani Kertas , a paper factory management company located in Mangkajang, East Kalimantan. Previously, Kiani Kertas was owned by Bob Hasan, a businessman close to President Soeharto. Prabowo also bought Kiani Kertas using a loan worth Rp. 1.8 trillion. Prabowo changed the name Kiani Kertas to Kertas Nusantara . The Nusantara Group company owned by Prabowo also controls twenty-seven companies at home and abroad. Prabowo’s businesses operate in the plantation, mining, palm oil and coal sectors.
In 2011, it was reported that PT Kertas Nusantara had 161 creditors consisting of 136 concurrent creditors, 18 special creditors and 7 separatist creditors. Based on verification from the Business Competition Supervisory Commission, at that time the total debt of Kertas Nusantara reached IDR 14.31 trillion. On June 9 2011, the Central Jakarta Commercial Court ordered PT Kertas Nusantara to pay a debt of Rp. 142 billion to PT Multi Alphabet as one of the creditors within forty-five years, if not, Kertas Nusantara is threatened with being declared bankrupt. On July 22 2011, PT Kertas Nusantara survived the threat of bankruptcy after 89% of creditors agreed to provide an extension of time for debt payments.
On January 20 2015, PT Kertas Nusantara was again hit by problems because around 600 employees of PT Kertas Nusantara in Berau Regency, East Kalimantan staged a demonstration demanding salaries that had not been paid for 5 months. However, this news was directly denied by Indra Alam. He felt that he had never made a statement that he invited workers to demonstrate at the HI Roundabout and boycott Prabowo in the elections. PT Kertas Nusantara management has also confirmed that the salary debt problem has been resolved since March 2014. Director of PT Kertas Nusantara Winson Pola never apologized and explained that this was caused by financial difficulties due to the factory not operating at full capacity in mid-2013 .
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Prabowo Subianto’s Political Career
Prabowo Subianto’s political career began when he was about to run as a candidate for Indonesian president from the Golkar Party at the 2004 Golkar Presidential Candidate Convention. Even though he passed, in the end Prabowo lost the vote to Wiranto.
Together with his younger brother, Hashim Djojohadikusumo, former student activist Fadli Zon and former Deputy V of the State Intelligence Agency for Raising Muchdi Purwoprandjono and a number of other names, on February 6 2008 he founded the Greater Indonesia Movement Party or Gerindra. In the Gerindra party, Prabowo serves as Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Central Leadership Council (DPP). The Gerindra Party won 4,646,406 votes (4.46%) and placed twenty-six representatives in the DPR RI in the 2009 Indonesian Legislative Election.
On May 9 2008, the Gerindra Party expressed its desire to nominate Prabowo as a presidential candidate in the 2009 elections. However, after a difficult bargaining process, Prabowo was finally willing to become Megawati Soekarnoputri’s presidential candidate. The two signed a Slate Agreement which stated that:
1. The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle and the Gerindra Party nominated Megawati as a presidential candidate and Prabowo as a vice presidential candidate in the 2009 elections.
2. If both are elected, Prabowo can control Indonesia’s economic programs and policies.
3. Prabowo can determine who will become Minister of Forestry, Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Finance, Minister of Industry, Minister of Manpower and Transmigration, Minister of Law and Human Rights, and also Minister of Defense.
4. The government that is formed will support the PDI Perjuangan’s people’s program and also the eight action programs of the Gerindra Party for the prosperity of the people.
5. Funding for elections will be shared.
6. Megawati will support Prabowo’s candidacy as a presidential candidate for the 2014 election.
In the 2009 presidential election, Prabowo became the richest vice presidential candidate. Prabowo has total assets of Rp. 1.579 trillion and $7.57 million, including 84 special horses, some of which cost up to 3 billion each and a number of luxury cars. This wealth is 160 times the wealth reported in 2003.
The results of a quick count from the Indonesian Survey Institute, the Indonesian Survey Circle, the Economic and Social Research, Education and Information Institute, the Center for Strategic Policy and Development Studies, CIRUS, the Information Research Institute, and Metro TV’s Quick Count, predict that the Megawati-Prabowo pair will lose badly to couple Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Boediono. The KPU Manual calculation results announced on July 25 2009 were not much different from the quick count results.
In the 2014 presidential candidate election, the Greater Indonesia Movement Party stated that it would nominate Prabowo as its candidate for president of Indonesia. Prabowo stated that he was ready to be nominated as president. Although several survey institutions noted that Prabowo’s electability was the highest when compared to other presidential candidates. In fact, quite a few political observers believe that Prabowo’s steps will hamper the very low electability of the Greater Indonesia Movement Party.
In the 2014 legislative general election, based on Kompas’ quick calculations up to April 9 2014, Gerindra won third place with 11.58%, while PDIP won 19.52% and Golkar won 15.22%. Prabowo Subianto presented “ Six National Transformation Action Programs“. In his campaign, Prabowo stated that if he was elected President of the Republic of Indonesia, Prabowo wanted to build a strong, sovereign, just and prosperous economy, implement a people’s economy, build food and energy sovereignty and monitor water resources, improve the quality of Indonesia’s human development through education, health, and other programs. social and cultural, as well as building infrastructure and preserving nature and the environment, as well as building a government that is free from corruption, strong, firm and effective.
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In the presidential election, Prabowo ran again by appointing Sandiaga Uno as his vice presidential candidate. However, victory was not on his side. On October 23 2019, Prabowo was appointed as the 26th Minister of Defense of the Republic of Indonesia in the Advanced Indonesia Cabinet for the period 2019 to 2024.