Prabowo appears at ease on the global stage and enjoys a high approval rating at home but analysts point to a lack of direction on foreign policy. Days after he was sworn in as Indonesia’s eighth president, retired general Prabowo Subianto, kicked off his tenure with a militaristic boot camp in the hills of Java.
In olive-green army fatigues and combat boots, his new cabinet – from bespectacled technocrats to former officers – marched and stood in formation. It was a striking look for the world’s third-largest democracy, one that less than two decades ago threw off the shackles of authoritarian rule.
But analysts say the show of discipline and coordination belie what has ensued in the first 100 days of Prabowo’s presidency, with the ex-commander’s leadership described as at times being haphazard, contradictory and lacking clear direction. “This is one of the most chaotic first 100 days I have seen,” said Yohanes Sulaiman, from General Achmad Yani University in Bandung, “The government seems to be lacking in discipline, with most of the policies half baked.”.
Prabowo gained widespread popularity with his promise to provide free meals to almost 90 million school children and pregnant women, winning a landslide election victory in February last year, but a series of u-turns has followed, on everything from pardons to flashpoint topics such as Beijing’s claims on the South China Sea.
