Ex-General Becomes Cat-Loving Grandpa in Bid to Run Indonesia
- Prabowo Subianto has had an extensive image makeover
- He has the backing of Joko Widodo, the popular president
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The odds have never looked better for Prabowo Subianto to win Indonesia’s highest office.
A former military general, Prabowo was dismissed for alleged human rights abuses, exiled in Jordan, then banned from the US for two decades. He’s temperamental, volatile and known for pounding tables and fiery nationalist speeches. The former son-in-law of Indonesia’s late dictator Suharto, he twice lost the race to become president to Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi. The last time, in 2019, he fought a bitter months-long campaign to overturn the results before eventually joining Jokowi’s cabinet as defense minister.