Facts Of Presidential Decree (3): Prabowo Subianto Who Is Always Overshadowed By Issues Of Human Rights Violations

Prabowo Subianto explained the strategy for the transformation of the nation towards Indonesia Gold 2045 at the 'Three Candidates for Talking Ideas' event at UGM Yogyakarta, September 19, 2023. (Instagram/@gerindra)

JAKARTA Prabowo Subianto will fight in the presidential election for the fifth time in his career. After three failed in the previous edition, this time the man who is now the Minister of Defense of Indonesia is claimed to be the most prepared among the three presidential candidates to face the 2024 presidential election contestation.

Prabowo's battle in the presidential election next year will be again tested with issues that actually repeat itself at every five-year-old democratic party. Prabowo's political opponents are considered to have no other weapons to tackle this 71-year-old man.

But according to political observer Dedi Kurnia Syah, in the records of the Indonesia Political Opinion (IPO) there is no evidence that most voters reject Prabowo because of this factor, only small groups use human rights issue propaganda and that actually has no impact.

Long before his career in politics, Prabowo Subianto had a career in the military. Prabowo actually spent more of his childhood abroad. That was because of the involvement of his father, Soemitro Djojohadikusumo, against President Soekarno's government through the Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Indonesia in West Sumatra.

He then started his military career at the TNI Anggakatan Darat in 1974 as Lieutenant Dua after graduating from AKABRI Land in Magelang.

After being poor across the military world, including being part of the Nanggala Team's operating force in East Timor in 1978, Prabowo's career in the military stopped in 1998, shortly after Suharto announced his resignation as president of Indonesia. Prabowo's last position as Commander of the Army Strategic Reserve Command (Pangkostrad).

Long story short, in 2008 Prabowo founded the Greater Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) as well as marked the beginning of his actions in politics.

Even though it was a new party, Gerindra immediately won 4,646,406 votes (4.46%) and placed 25 representatives in the Indonesian House of Representatives in the 2009 legislative elections. Gerindra's vote in the legislative elections continues to increase.

Gerindra placed 73 representatives in the 2014 legislative elections after winning 14,760,371. Gerindra even skyrocketed to become the third largest party in Indonesia after PDIP and Golkar thanks to vote acquisition in the 2014 election.

Five years later, Gerindra's deputy in the DPR increased by five compared to the previous edition after obtaining 17,594,839 votes (12.57%) and only losing to PDIP.

However, even though he is now under the big party, Prabowo's name cannot be separated from the issue of human rights violations directed at him. The issue of human rights violations and the fact that he was dismissed from military service in 1998 were often used by political opponents to tackle Prabowo in the presidential election battle.

Political observer Dedi Kurnia Syah said the issue of human rights violations committed by Prabowo Subianto was a dilemma. The fact that Prabowo was dismissed on the recommendations of the military assembly council, which stated that Prabowo had confiscated people's independence and various decisions whose source was non-compliance showed that the issue of human rights violations was not a black campaign, because it was presented in historical records.

But on the other hand, Prabowo still has political rights and that's why he was allowed by the state to establish a political party and is even now trusted by the president to lead the Ministry of Defense.

"Propaganda human rights violations will continue to emerge as long as Prabowo has rivals in the contest, because that is Prabowo's weakness, it is possible that Prabowo's rivals will find Prabowo's weakness in addition to human rights violations," said Dedi to VOI.

But Dedi emphasized that in the records of the Indonesian Politic Opinion (IPO) institution there is no evidence that Prabowo's rejection was due to this.

"Only small groups use propaganda on human rights issues and it actually has no impact," he said.

Among the three presidential candidates in the 2024 presidential election, Prabowo Subianto is the most senior figure. Not only in terms of age, but also his experience of fighting in the presidential election. Prabowo himself has twice run as a presidential candidate and once a vice presidential candidate with Gerindra as his political vehicle.

Before forming Gerindra, he also had time to run for President of the Golkar Party at the 2004 Golkar Presidential Candidate survey. Despite qualifying, Prabowo lost to Wiranto. Then in the 2009 presidential election he ran as vice presidential candidate Megawati Soekarnoputri. The pair who intercepted the slogan 'Mega-Pro' then lost to Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Prabowo again tried his luck as a presidential candidate in the 2014 presidential election. He appointed Hatta Rajasa as his vice presidential candidate. However, despite having strong support, the Prabowo-Hatta duo lost to Joko Widodo who was paired with Jusuf Kalla.

After two failures, Prabowo was not discouraged. In the 2019 presidential election he came back as a presidential candidate and this time he was paired with Sandiaga Uno. But the failure to return to the former son-in-law of President Suharto, who lost to the Jokowi-Ma 'Ruf Amin pair.

Dedi said that Prabowo had not yet found the right moment to qualify as the winner. From the previous three editions, Prabowo has always faced new figures.

Prabowo since appearing in the first election of Gerindra, has been quite heroic and has many loyalists, that's why Gerindra immediately qualified for parliament, "Dedi explained.

"It's just that, Prabowo has not found the right momentum, he always competes with new figures who have more opportunities, even in 2024 this could be difficult because there is a new figure who is also popular, namely Anies Baswedan. However, with the current situation, Prabowo still has a strong chance."

After passing three failures in the presidential election, Prabowo is now considered the most ready to fight in the presidential election next year. Moreover, various surveys show that Prabowo's electability is always high and is often in first place ahead of Ganjar Pranowo and the pair Anies Baswedan and Muhaimin Iskandar.

But on the one hand, Prabowo's attitude that has not yet determined his partner has the potential to become a new problem.

"As the most prepared presidential candidate in terms of the composition of political machines and logistics, Prabowo needs to take advantage of the situation by making quick decisions, one of which is to immediately declare a partner, so that they can do political work together faster," explained Dedi.

"If Prabowo is not defeterate, he may experience stagnation in electability, because there is the potential for the public to be bored with Prabowo's slow attitude," he concluded.