Jakarta. Prabowo Subianto, who will begin leading Indonesia this October, recently revealed his leadership style, saying that he will be himself. 

Speaking at the Qatar Economic Forum, Prabowo said he would “be himself” as he responded to host Haslinda Amin’s question on if he would base his policies through military eyes. The retired army general told the forum that he had been out of the military for 25 years, while also arguing that his military background had nothing to do with how he planned on running the country.

“I will be myself. I will be genuine. …  That means that you are true to your ideals, principles, and values. As a patriot, my main value is the well-being of my people. My people must be safe. They must not go hungry. They must live a good life. That is the dream of every patriot of a country,” Prabowo said. 

Prabowo denied claims that his presidency would clamp down on Indonesia’s democracy. The president-elect then went on to say how he had joined the election four times, while only succeeding on the fourth attempt.  

“This time, they [the Indonesian people] gave their consent. Where is the concern about democracy? I think the concerns about democracy is made up by some people in the press,” Prabowo said.

“Each country has their own culture and history. Every leader of every country must serve their people in their own way. So I go to my people. They rejected me three times, and they accepted me this time. So I will work very hard so that I don’t disappoint my people,” he added.

The now-defense minister first tried to run for office back in 2004. Prabowo at the time tried to be the presidential pick of Golkar Party, but lost to fellow former military general Wiranto. In 2009, Prabowo became the vice presidential pick to former president Megawati Soekarnoputri. However, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono --who was running for a second term-- defeated the Megawati-Prabowo pair. Prabowo then lost to the outgoing  President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in the 2014 and 2019 elections. But Prabowo claimed a landslide victory in the February election --winning against former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan and former Central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo. 

Prabowo has picked Jokowi’s eldest son Gibran Rakabuming Raka as his vice president. He has also pledged to build on Jokowi’s work, while adding a free school lunches program as his flagship policy.

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