Jakarta. President Prabowo Subianto and former president Megawati Soekarnoputri are expected to meet again on Oct. 17, days after Prabowo visited the former president at her Jakarta home to offer condolences for the death of her younger brother, a senior official from Megawati’s Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) said Tuesday.

PDIP executive Said Abdullah said the planned meeting would follow a roughly 40-minute meeting between Prabowo and Megawati on Monday night.

“Hopefully, the follow-up meeting will take place on Oct. 17, when the president celebrates his birthday,” Said told reporters at the House of Representatives complex in Jakarta.

Said did not disclose what the two leaders would discuss, but said the meeting would not cover the proposed revision of Indonesia’s Election Law, which is currently being discussed by political parties and lawmakers.

“Hopefully, on the president’s birthday, [Megawati] will attend and so on. That’s all,” he said.

Prabowo, 74, visited Megawati’s residence on Jalan Teuku Umar in Menteng, Central Jakarta, on Monday to express his condolences following the death of Mohammad Guruh Irianto Soekarnoputra, better known as Guruh Sukarnoputra.

Guruh, 73, the youngest son of Indonesia’s founding president Sukarno and Megawati’s younger brother, died early Saturday at MRCCC Siloam Hospitals Semanggi in Jakarta.

From political allies to election rivals
The expected meeting comes against the backdrop of a long and sometimes complicated political relationship between Prabowo and Megawati.

The two were running mates in Indonesia’s 2009 presidential election, when Megawati ran for president and Prabowo was her vice-presidential candidate. They lost to incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who won a second term.

Five years later, the pair moved onto opposite sides of the presidential race. Prabowo ran against Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who was backed by Megawati and PDIP. Jokowi defeated Prabowo in the 2014 election and again in 2019.

Their political paths diverged further in the 2024 presidential election, when Prabowo ran with Jokowi’s eldest son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, as his vice-presidential candidate. PDIP nominated Ganjar Pranowo, a former Central Java governor, with Mahfud MD as his running mate.

Prabowo and Gibran won the 2024 election with 58.59% of the vote, defeating Anies Baswedan and Ganjar. Prabowo was inaugurated as president in October 2024.

The election also marked a major shift in the political relationship between Prabowo and Jokowi, who had defeated him twice before later becoming an important political backer of his former rival. PDIP, meanwhile, remained outside Prabowo’s initial governing coalition, although the party has maintained channels of communication with the president.

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