It was third time lucky for the 72-year-old former army general when he swept to presidential power in Indonesia on 14 February. The archipelago nation’s new President-elect lost in the last two elections to the wildly popular Joko Widodo (known affectionately among the public as Jokowi) who was the country’s first leader without roots in the military or political elite. Widodo was barred from running this time around due to term limits. Unlike his popular predecessor, who was raised in a riverside slum in the central Java city of Surakarta, Subianto is a blueblood whose father and grandfather played crucial roles in government. Following his two recent defeats, Subianto toned down his fiery militant rhetoric, presenting himself more akin to a kindly grandfather promising stability and continuity. For an Indonesia tired of rupture and conflict, it appears to have been a winning formula – though Subianto has nonetheless been embroiled in allegations of brutal human rights abuses. In 1998, the rightwinger was dismissed from the army for overseeing massacres during his time as a special forces commander against Indonesia’s restive colonies in East Timor and West Papua.
But Subianto’s real winning card this time around was the rather puzzling support of his former opponent Widodo, possibly lubricated by Subianto having appointed the latter’s son as his running mate. There were some who smelt a rather large rat in the appointment, especially when a constitutional court overrode the age limitation that allows only those over 40 to run for vice-president (Widodo’s son is 36).
