COMMENT | Shall Indonesia celebrate Prabowo's victory?

COMMENT | I am greatly disturbed by a slew of bewildering Western news on Indonesia’s presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto.

Generally speaking, any news from the Western media is often taken with a pinch of salt.

Nevertheless, when a media like Democracy Now critically examines Prabowo’s victory, a person like me who has been consistently following this media - especially on the armed conflict in Gaza - is consumed by a dilemma to simply ignore its media coverage and treat it as mere Western propaganda.

After all, Democracy Now has often been universally hailed as a reliable and trusted media.

Recently, Democracy Now interviewed Allan Nairn. Nairn is a well-known American investigative journalist and he was imprisoned by Indonesian military forces under United States-backed strongman Suharto while reporting in East Timor.

Prabowo, Nairn argues, used to claim that Indonesia was not ready for democracy as the country, according to Prabowo, needed a benign authoritarian regime.

Pak Anies, the dark horse

Truth be told, I really don’t know what to say or comment. One thing is for sure: Prabowo is definitely not my favourite candidate. I was hoping for Anies Baswedan to win.

Anies was a former successful Jakarta governor who managed to transform Jakarta into a beautiful city worth visiting.

In the 14th presidential election, Pak Anies - as he is affectionately known - is often treated as a dark horse who intends to pursue what he calls a “value-based foreign policy” if he becomes Indonesia’s next leader.

In the Western media, Prabowo has been incessantly painted as a longtime US protégé who was allegedly implicated in the country’s bloody massacres.

He was once mused by Nairn to become “a fascist dictator” and is now treated as a serious threat to assume the presidency.

Anyway, the voters in Indonesia have “spoken” via the ballot box. Ergo, it is a “democratic victory” according to the Western definition of democracy.

Be that as it may, we badly need to respect the vox populi - at least for the time being.

MOHAMED HANIPA MAIDIN is a former Sepang MP and former deputy minister of law.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.

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