Karishma Vaswani, Columnist

Indonesia’s Military Is Becoming Too Powerful — Again

President Prabowo Subianto clearly has big ambitions for the armed forces.

September 28, 2025 at 8:00 PM UTC

Karishma Vaswani is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asia politics with a special focus on China. Previously, she was the BBC's lead Asia presenter and worked for the BBC across Asia and South Asia for two decades.

A return to the Suharto era?
Photographer: Timur Matahari/AFP/Getty Images

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The Indonesian army was a formidable force during the former dictator Suharto’s regime, helping to keep a vast archipelago under his brutal control. Now that President Prabowo Subianto is in power, the military is becoming more pervasive in public life once more. This risks bringing back an authoritarian past citizens have worked hard to escape.

The most recent concerns were sparked by an unusual full-page advertisement in Kompas, the nation’s largest daily, taken out last week by the Ministry of Defense. The lengthy essay described the army’s expanded remit in non-defense programs, from Prabowo’s free school lunch initiative and village cooperatives, to plans to create 500 new battalions supporting healthcare and agriculture.