Prabowo’s tightrope walk to 2029
“Prabowo owes his presidency largely to his predecessor, Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo. Exit polls revealed that over 40 per cent of Prabowo’s voters backed him primarily to continue Jokowi’s policy agenda.”
“Yet this reliance on borrowed political capital is a double-edged sword. To keep these decisive voters, Prabowo must uphold Jokowi’s socio-economic pragmatism, including prudent fiscal management, while maintaining household purchasing power. But his early choices suggest otherwise. His expanding the appointment of military officers to civilian roles in the government and increasing military involvement in social programs — alongside passing a revision to military laws to facilitate these moves — indicate a turn towards securitised governance. If Prabowo drifts too far from Jokowi’s technocratic-populist model, he risks losing key voters who backed him as a continuity candidate rather than a return to New Order-style authoritarianism.”
https://eastasiaforum.org/2025/06/10/prabowos-tightrope-walk-to-2029/