Jakarta. A former president will likely become a speaker at the upcoming military-style retreat for elected regional heads, according to Vice Home Affairs Minister Bima Arya.

The Prabowo Subianto administration will hold another boot camp for Indonesia’s newly elected regional leaders, including governors at Magelang’s Military Academy. The retreat will go on for a week, starting this Friday -- just a day after their inauguration ceremony. Prabowo and other senior government officials will brief the participants on the national programs, including food security,  the free school meal rollout, as well as regional spending management. Bima Arya also revealed that Prabowo’s presidential predecessor would also join the retreat, although he did not say which ex-president would attend the boot camp.

“We will have all ministers and Lemhannas [National Resilience Institute] experts become the speakers. President [Prabowo] will attend. Perhaps a former president will also join us there,” Bima told the press in Jakarta over the weekend, as reported by the state news agency Antara.

“We will reveal [the former president] later. We will see,” Bima said.

Indonesia has three living former presidents: Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY), and Megawati Soekarnoputri. Bima’s statement also came not long after Prabowo’s amicable interactions with Jokowi at his political party Gerindra’s anniversary. Prabowo even thanked Jokowi for his support during last year's elections. Jokowi was in power for a decade before he passed the presidential baton to Prabowo. His eldest son Gibran Rakabuming Raka is now Prabowo’s vice president.

Both Indonesia’s sixth president SBY and Prabowo came from a military background. SBY founded the Democratic Party, which is part of the huge political alliance Advanced Indonesia Coalition that backed Prabowo in the 2024 election. 

Megawati is the matriarch of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

Over the past months, senior officials of PDI-P and Gerindra have been floating plans for Prabowo and Megawati to meet each other. In the recent presidential election, PDI-P endorsed Former Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo as one of Prabowo’s rivals. The Prabowo-Megawati meeting has yet to take place.

The regional heads' retreat took inspiration from a similar military boot camp meant for Prabowo's cabinet members.

The upcoming retreat was supposed to be two weeks long, but the government had to shorten it following the president's budget efficiency measures.

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