VI Old Boy poised to lead Indonesia

JAKARTA: An alumnus of Kuala Lumpur’s prestigious Victoria Institution (VI) is set to be Indonesia’s eighth president.

Quick counts showed that Prabowo Subianto (pic) was leading with more than 58% of the votes yesterday against his two rivals in the Indonesian presidential election.

Former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan and former Central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo are trailing with about 25% and 17%, respectively.

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Prabowo must claim more than 50% of the overall vote and at least a fifth of ballots cast in over half the country’s 38 provinces to replace President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who had reached his two-term limit.

Prabowo lost to Jokowi in the 2014 and 2019 presidential elections.

The 72-year-old Gerindra party president studied at VI, located at Jalan Hang Tuah, from 1962 to 1964.

In an official visit to Malaysia as Defence Minister in November 2019, Prabowo said it was like coming home.

“It is like ‘pulang ke kampung’ (coming home) for me.

“Kuala Lumpur reminds me of my younger days, where I went to school and grew up here,” he had told the media then.

Prabowo’s late father, Sumitro Djojohadikusumo, intermittently held ministerial positions under presidents Sukarno and Suharto between 1950 and 1978.

As a vocal critic of Sukarno in the 1960s, Sumitro was in political exile in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

Prabowo’s mother is the late Dora Marie Sigar, a Christian of Minahasan descent from Sulawesi.

The former three-star general was married to Titiek Suharto, Suharto’s second daughter.

The divorced couple had a son together, Didit Hediprasetyo, a fashion designer and socialite living alternately in Paris and Jakarta.

Prabowo has also been bestowed with “Datuk Seri,” a title he received from Melaka Yang di-Pertua Negeri Tun Mohd Ali Rustam in 2022.

In an Instagram post, the then Indonesian Defence Minister thanked Mohd Ali for the “Darjah Gemilang Seri Melaka” award, which comes with the “Datuk Seri” title.