Prabowo's First Hundred Days: A Return to Authoritarian Violence

 The first hundred days of Prabowo Subianto’s presidency have swiftly revealed a brutal, authoritarian agenda that harkens back to Indonesia’s darker past. 

As the son-in-law of the infamous dictator Suharto, Prabowo’s rise to power was always likely to spark concerns about the return of repressive governance—and those fears have already been realized.

Since his inauguration on October 20, human rights organizations such as Amnesty International have documented at least 17 extrajudicial killings at the hands of Indonesian police and military personnel. Meanwhile, the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KontraS) has raised alarm over 136 documented cases of torture under his watch.

Not long ago, I encountered a former French diplomat, HF, who had served in East Timor during its transition to independence in the early 2000s. In a brief exchange, HF posed a provocative question: "How is it possible that in Indonesia, a former war criminal is not only unpunished but elected president?"

It’s an unsettling question, one that doesn’t lend itself to a simple answer. To avoid the trap of a fruitless debate, I responded with a question of my own: "What do you think will happen to a country if it is led by a war criminal?" The conversation paused, and the silence that followed spoke volumes.

The philosopher Hans Jonas once said, "In dubio, pro malo"—when in doubt, assume the worst. It’s a grim but prudent lens through which to view Indonesia’s uncertain future.

Amid the bluster of nationalistic rhetoric and superficial optimism, the stark reality is that under Prabowo’s rule, the country is facing a dangerous and unpredictable path, where human rights abuses appear to be just the beginning.

For the record, Prabowo’s history is stained with allegations of war crimes—kidnappings and violent repression of pro-democracy activists in the late 1990s, and a trail of cruelty in East Timor and West Papua. His involvement in the Mapenduma operation of 1996 in West Papua, a region still struggling for independence, adds yet another dark chapter to his record.

In this era of instability, when the specter of the past is once again cast over Indonesia, Prabowo’s presidency could very well represent the worst possible outcome for a nation desperately seeking to move beyond its authoritarian history. And the world must watch carefully as the consequences unfold.