Prabowo Subianto’s inauguration as Indonesian president on Sunday caps a remarkable political comeback from years on Western blacklists.
For a time, Prabowo Subianto was not welcome in Australia. Gnarly allegations of human rights abuses coursed from his murky years as a Suharto-era general. Most of these he rejects as concoctions of his enemies, “part of the games of politics”. But Australia thought them serious enough.
This was a rough time for the man whom the Americans once tipped to succeed president Suharto, his father-in-law. Suharto’s corrupt and autocratic regime crumbled in 1998, and Prabowo was soon living in self-imposed exile in Jordan, having been discharged honourably from the military (Proving anything is possible, Prabowo, now 73, will be inaugurated on Sunday as Indonesia’s eighth president, completing a remarkable political rehabilitation.
Prabowo was born in Jakarta in 1951 to a powerful and political family headed by his father Sumitro, an influential economist who worked for founding president Sukarno until Indonesia’s roiling politics forced the family into exile. For much of Prabowo’s childhood, he lived variously between London, Singapore, Hong Kong, Zurich and Kuala Lumpur, learning to speak English, Dutch, French and German.
Although none of Soeharto’s children shows and inclination toward government or military affairs, his 32-year-old son-in-law, Capt. Subianto Sumitro Djojohadikusumo Prabowo , exemplifies the type of officer who could rise to national leadership.
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