Prabowo’s experience as defence minister ‘a great asset’

Reject fraudulent election: A protester shouting slogans during a rally against alleged fraud in the Feb 14 presidential election outside the General Election Commission’s office in Jakarta. — AP

On Nov 21, 2023, a week before starting his campaign to be Indonesia’s next president, Prabowo Subianto was in Singapore to receive the nation’s highest military award.

In a statement about the Darjah Utama Bakti Cemerlang (Tentera) or Distinguished Service Order (Military) award, Singapore’s Ministry of Defence (Mindef) had highlighted how it was under Prabowo that the Defence Cooperation Agreement, an important document that strengthens the security relationship between the two countries, was ratified.

The 2022 agreement that Prabowo, 72, helped shape “represented a significant milestone in bilateral defence relations”, said Mindef. It added that he had made significant contributions to strengthen the close and long-standing bilateral defence relations between Indonesia and Singapore, and promoted closer collaboration.

Such an example shows how familiar Prabowo is to Singapore, and how this bodes well for the relationship between the two countries, analysts said.

Prabowo, who has been the country’s defence minister since 2019, leads with 57.9% of votes, more than twice those of his nearest rival. In an Instagram post less than 24 hours after he declared himself as Indonesia’s next president, he said he had been receiving calls congratulating him – one of them being from Singapore’s Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong.

Prabowo is hardly a stranger to Singapore, given how he frequently visits the country and interacts with its leaders. The most recent award was conferred on him by President Tharman Shanmugaratnam, and during his time in Singapore then, Prabowo had lunch with his counterpart, Dr Ng Eng Hen, and also participated in the two most recent editions of the annual Shangri-La Dialogue, a high-level defence pow-wow.

“He has long experience dealing with Singapore leaders and its people and would likely continue the defence cooperation,” said Dr Irman G. Lanti from Indonesia’s Padjadjaran University. — The Straits Times/ANN